If you are a bank customer then this news is for you. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has changed the rules related to ATM transactions. RBI has allowed banks to increase financial-non-financial ATM transaction fees. RBI has given this information by issuing a statement.
RBI has approved to increase the charge on cash withdrawal after free transactions. Banks currently charge Rs 20 per transaction from customers. It does not include taxes. RBI has said that due to higher interchange fees, banks will be able to increase the charges charged to customers after free transactions to compensate for the cost. According to RBI, after the free transaction, banks will be able to charge Rs 21 from their customers instead of 20 per transaction. It does not include taxes. This rule will come into effect from January 1, 2022. The charge on cash withdrawal from ATMs has been increased after about 7 years.
RBI has also approved an increase in the interchange charges associated with ATM transactions. Now all banks will be able to increase the interchange charge for their ATM transactions. After this change, banks will be able to reduce the non-financial transaction charge from Rs 5 to Rs 6 and the financial transaction charge from Rs 15 to 17. However, the interchange charge is not levied from the customers. The rules related to interchange transactions have changed after 9 years. These new rules will come into effect from 1 August 2021.
RBI has said that even after the change in the rules, customers will continue to get the facility of 5 free transactions at their bank's ATM. This includes both financial and non-financial transactions. Apart from this, bank customers will also continue to get the facility of free transactions at other bank's ATMs. At present, bank customers get 3 transactions free in metro cities and 5 transactions in non-metro cities at other bank's ATMs.
Earlier, RBI had changed the rules related to interchange charge for ATM transactions in 2012. Whereas the ATM transaction charge charged from customers was changed in August 2014. RBI had constituted a committee in June 2019 to change the charges related to ATM transactions. On the basis of the recommendations of this committee, now approval has been given to increase the ATM transaction charges.
As on 31 March 2021, the number of onsite ATMs in the country was 1,15,605. At the same time, the number of off-site ATMs was 97,970. As on 31 March 2021, about 90 crore ATM cards of all banks were in circulation in the country. HSBC Bank installed the first ATM in the country in 1987 in Mumbai. After this, the number of ATMs in the country increased to 1500 in the next 12 years.
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