The largest public sector lender, State Bank of India, is leading in expansion of ATMs in non-metro and semi-urban centres, an Assocham analysis of RBI data shows.
While SBI has 5,783 automated teller machines (ATMs) in metro cities, the cash dispensing machines in urban centres other than metros and in semi-urban areas are 7,511 and 6,419, respectively . Even in the rural areas, the bank has 2,756 ATMs.
Following SBI is another public sector lender, Punjab National Bank, which has a larger number of ATMs in the non-metro cities than in the metros, as per the latest RBI data.
Private sector banks, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and HDFC still have “bias and preference” for ATMs in metro cities, followed by tier-II cities, the Assocham study released here on Wednesday reveals.
Among the private banks, Axis Bank had the largest ATM network in July 2012, followed by HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank.
“The Finance Ministry is rightly very keen of achieving financial inclusion of a large number of people in rural areas.
“This can best be achieved by leveraging of technology and use of mobile telephony and ATMs,” Assocham Secretary-General, D. S. Rawat, said.
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.