Bank or no bank, Tatas to set up 15000 ATMs in 3 years

Tatas do not have permission to open a bank in India yet butTata Communications Payment Solutions Ltd (TCPSL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Communications Ltd, will rollout15,000 white label ATMs in the next three years, two-third of which will be in smaller towns.

White-label ATMs do not belong to any particular bank but are operated by private players.

They function just the same way as any other bank-run ATM but are operated by non-banking companies.

The Tata Communication arm is in talks with at least six banks, including two large public sector lenders, for fee-based cash supplies to its Indicash-branded white label ATMs.

The company receives Rs 15 per transaction from the respective banks during cash withdrawal and Rs 5 per transaction for balance enquiry.

More from Business

Last year, Reserve Bank of India had allowed corporates to set up white label ATMs to increase the penetration of ATMs in several areas of the country. TCPSL, among others, had bagged a licence for the same.

"By December, we expect the number of Indicash branded white label ATMs to touch 1500 and then we hope to begin rolling out value-added services from these ATMs or its sites," TCPSL CEO Sanjeev Patel said during the official launch of indicash ATMs in West Bengal.

Currently, 350 indicash ATMs are operational. The company has decided to offer value-added services (VAS) such as bill payments and sale of insurance products through these ATMs from December this year.

"We plan to manage 50,000 ATMs which would include 15,000 white label ATMs and of commercial banks in the country," Patel said.

In West Bengal total ATMs will be 1,000 over the next three years from 16 now."The initial response form the ATMs had been better than expected. We are witnessing roughly 100 transactions per machine per day," he said.

According to a report in the Economic Times, the Tatas are the first one to launch white-label ATM network in India; others like Muthoot Finance, SREI Infrastructure Finance, Prizm Payments and AGS Transact are among the 12 that have got in-principle approval from the banking regulator to instal ATMs.

With inputs from PTI