In a move that would greatly relieve consumers, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has directed all banks and white label automated teller machine operators to ensure that ATMs never run out of cash.
“A review of downtime of ATMs due to cash-outs was undertaken and it was observed that ATM operations affected by cash-outs lead to non-availability of cash and cause avoidable inconvenience to the members of the public,” RBI said in a statement.
According to the scheme, a penalty of Rs 10,000 per ATM will be levied in the event of a cash-out situation for more than 10 hours in a month. “In the case of white label ATMs, the penalty would be charged to the bank which is meeting the cash requirement of that particular white label ATM. The bank, may, at its discretion, recover the penalty from the white label ATM operator”, RBI said.
The RBI has said banks have to submit system-generated statements on the downtime of ATMs due to non-availability of cash to the ‘Issue Department’ of RBI, under whose jurisdiction the ATMs are located. For white-label ATM operators, who depend on the banks to replenish their cash requirements, the banks should furnish a separate statement on cash-out of such ATMs due to non-replenishment of cash.
The Scheme of Penalty will be administered by the ‘Issue Departments’ of the regional offices of the bank. The competent authority to impose the penalty will be the officer-in-charge of the Issue Department of the regional office under whose jurisdiction the ATMs are located.
To appeal against the decision of the competent authority, banks/ WLAOs will have to reach out to the regional director/officer-in-charge of the regional office concerned, within one month from the date of imposition of penalty. Appeals would be considered only in cases of genuine reasons beyond the control of bank/ WLAOs such as the imposition of lockdown or strike.
