Punjab National Bank customers will now withdraw cash from ATMs by using a One Time Password (OTP). OTP is a system-generated numeric string of characters that authenticates the user for a single transaction. The rule, which was introduced last week, will be applicable starting today (December 1). With this move, the bank has added another layer of security for cash withdrawals.

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Starting December 1, Punjab National Bank (PNB) will implement a One Time Password (OTP) based cash withdrawal facility for its customers. The bank has said that cash withdrawals of more than Rs 10,000 at a time between 8 pm and 8 am from 1 December 2020 from PNB 2.0 (PNB, eOBC, eUNI) ATMs will now be OTP based. PNB customers will need OTP, sent on their registered mobile phone,  to withdraw more than Rs 10,000 in these night hours. 

PNB account holders should follow the below-mentioned steps to withdraw cash from PNB ATMs using OTP

1. Insert your debit/ATM card into the machine

2. Enter the necessary details
3. If you are withdrawing more than ₹10000 at a time, you will receive an OTP on your registered mobile number
4. Enter the OTP on the ATM machine
5. You can easily withdraw cash from the PNB ATM

Prior to the Punjab National Bank, the State Bank of India (SBI) too had introduced OTP-based cash withdrawal for ₹10,000 and above applicable for all its ATMs across the country. 

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In a similar move, SBI since September 18 is providing a wider window period for customers. India’s biggest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has allowed an extension of time for the OTP-based cash withdrawal from ATMs. SBI customers are now able to make ATM withdrawals of Rs 10,000 and above after an OTP verification throughout the day. The bank had allowed this facility to customers from 8 PM to 8 AM in January.

With the introduction of its OTP-based cash withdrawal facility, State Bank added another layer of security for cash withdrawals through its ATMs service.

Mean-while, India on Tuesday recorded 31,118 new cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), which pushed the nationwide tally to 9,462,809, according to a Union health ministry update at 8 am.

The number of active cases dropped further, to 4,35,603, while 88,89,585 patients were discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours, health ministry data showed. The number of recovered patients has now reached.

The country recorded 482 new fatalities due to the infection in the past 24 hours, the ministry said. With this, the death toll has reached 1,37,621.

India has conducted 140 million tests to detect Covid-19 in the past 11 months, of which 10 million tests were performed during the past 10 days alone, government data shows.

The first test to diagnose Covid-19 in the country was performed on January 23, and on Monday, India performed about 900,000 tests in a single day.

India’s coronavirus tally had crossed the 9.4 million-lakh mark after 38,772 new infections were reported on Monday, as per the health ministry data.

On Sunday, the ministry had said that the national recovery rate stands at 93.71 percent. It also said that India continues to have one of the lowest deaths per million population globally (presently 99).