Shutdown Threat For ATMs In India

The closure will also directly affect basic banking services across the nation

- M. Rajendran

India, on an average has one ATM for every 5,555 citizens, lagging behind most developed countries like South Korea, China, Singapore, Canada, France, the UK and Japan.

Further Confederation of ATM Industry (CATMi), the Automated Teller Machines (ATM) industry body, feels that service providers may be forced to close down almost 1.19 lakh ATMs across the country by March 2019, which is half of the total 2.38 lakh machines. “These numbers include approximately one lakh off-site ATMs and a little over 15,000 white label ATMs (WLA),” a CATMi statement said.

The industry body exclaimed that the recent regulatory changes, including those on hardware and software upgrades, coupled with mandates on cash management standards and the cassette swap method of loading cash, will make ATM operations unviable, resulting in their possible closure. “Upgrading the ATMs for compliance is a long drawn out and logistically challenging process and one cannot expect full compliance across all the ATMs of the country, even by the end of this year,” said Radha Rama Dorai, MD, ATM and Allied Services, FIS.

This leads us to ponder upon many serious questions— Is India prepared to move fully digital in money matters? Does the country currently have a robust digital network to provide uninterrupted high bandwidth, high-speed broadband internet connectivity?

If the answers are in the negative, there is a crisis looming large over the way Indian consumers manage their banking and finance.