In a bid to provide operational freedom to banks, the Reserve Bank of India on Thursday said they are now free to offer all their products and services through the ATM channels provided technology permits the same.

In a partial modification of the circular relating to ‘Relaxations in Branch Authorisation Policy – Offsite ATMs’, the RBI said banks have to ensure that adequate checks are put in place to prevent the (ATM) channel from being misused to perpetuate frauds on banks/other genuine customers.

According to RBI data, there were 1,92,166 ATMs across the country as at November-end 2015. The volume of transactions at the ATMs using debit and credit cards was at 675.09 million and 0.49 million, respectively.

The riders

According to the RBI, offsite ATMs can be operationalised by banks subject to conditions, including that the business transacted at such ATMs should be recorded in the books of the respective branch/ base branch/ Centralised Data Centre and no person other than the security guard should be posted at such an offsite ATM centres.

Banks should make adequate standby arrangements for meeting the cash requirements of the ATMs and should ensure that only properly sorted and examined notes are put into circulation through the ATMs.

Third-party advertisement on the ATM screens/ network, such as display of products of other manufacturers/ dealers/ vendors, is not permitted. However, there is no objection to banks utilising the ATM screens for displaying their own products.

According to a 2009 RBI circular, the various facilities which can be provided through ATMs include deposits/ withdrawals; personal identification number (PIN) changes; requisition for cheque books; statement of accounts; balance enquiry; inter-account transfer between accounts of the same customer or different customers of the bank at the same centre or different centres within the country.

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