Your wait in front of the ATM counter is likely to remain long.
According to senior banking officials, it may take even a week before the good old days — when you could just stop your car by an ATM counter on the high way and withdraw as much money you want — are back.
Only the arrival of the new Rs.500 currency notes would reduce the queues before the ATM counters. You are unlikely to lay your hands on those notes before Monday. And it could well be a little later in the week when those fresh notes reach the ATM machines.
So, many people had to return disappointed from ATM counters across the city on Thursday too, empty-handed. Though prominent public sector banks such as the State Bank of India and the State Bank of Travancore filled up their ATM counters three times during the day, they proved inadequate to meet the huge demand, yet again.
The SBI’s decision to reach out to their customers through mobile cash dispensing units proved helpful for many. “We went to places such as the Government Medical College and the IIM-K,” M. Santhosh Kumar, chief manager, regional business office, SBI, told The Hindu . “Using their debit cards, customers withdrew more than Rs.12 lakh using the services of our mobile point of sale. We plan to continue this service for the next few days as well, till there is sufficient money in the ATMs.”
Meanwhile, the SBT branches in the city reported that there was a considerable decrease in the number of people who came to exchange their old currency notes on Thursday, the day in which the marking on the customer’s finger with indelible ink was introduced.
“At our main branch, quite a lot of people went back when they learnt that they would be marked with the ink,” said T. Sethumadhavan Nair, assistant general manger, SBT. “At least 30 per cent of them went away without exchanging their old notes. Obviously, they would have exchanged notes already.”
But there was a huge rush of customers who came to withdraw cash on Thursday too. “We issue tokens till 4 p.m.,” he said. “It would be 8 p.m. when we have served our last customer.”
That meant another day late into the night at office for the bank staffer.
