ATMs, the New Age Bank Branches


BENGALURU: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has come up with an idea and proposed that ATMs should be treated equally to a bank branch with a bank employee for support. RBI came to this conclusion after a study which showed that mobile penetration in India is the highest in Asia and Indians depend a great deal on ATMs and branches. 

According to the report, 50 pct of Indians used mobile banking once in a week, as compared to 44 pct in China. Monthly mobile banking transactions have grown to 7 Crore for each month in the last three years.

Moreover, Indians use ATMs and branches too on a very large scale. ATMs keep on dominating as far as numbers of transactions are concerned. As reports suggest that 6.5 Crore mobile banking transaction took place in July 2016, as against the 75 Crore ATM transactions that took place for the same month.

At present, only a security guard is allowed to be present at ATMs. A few banks have asked to change this and allow their own staff at ATMs, so that the booths can be utilized for encouraging business and giving better client service.

"It is recommended that the present condition (of not allowing bank staff on off-site ATMs) be removed and any electronic kiosks and ATM cash deposit machines, if manned by bank's staff or business correspondent should also be treated as a 'banking outlet' for the purpose of these regulations," the report said, as reported by Business Insider.

According to the report, as the digital age ushers in at a fast pace, use of traditional branches would see a gradual decline.

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