The (India) Economic Times reports that ATMs in India may soon rely more heavily on cellular connectivity for network expansion.
The paper reports that banks in India are expected on Jan. 6 to meet with telecom companies to discuss broad standards for an ATM-enabled correspondent network. One bank, RBI, now allows banks to appoint small retail outlets like grocery stores, as well as banking correspondents, to extend banking to unbanked areas using cellular connectivity.
"ATMs are getting much more compact and they cost a fraction of what they used to several years back," said an official with a local ATM company. At present, no bank stocks currency notes of less than Rs 100 denomination in an ATM, as this restricts the cash-handling capacity. However, bankers say that it is possible to have ATMs dispensing out smaller amounts."
The Indian Banks Association has held a meeting of bankers in Mumbai to discuss the modalities for working together with the government on the unique identification (UID) project. IBA is already working on combining the UID project with the financial inclusion projects of banks.
It has proposed that UID numbers could be allotted to individuals with the help of banks. This exercise in turn would help banks increase their accounts base.
IBA also has organized a meeting of the telecom companies and banks for Jan. 6, to discuss issues for leveraging the UID project for banks' financial-inclusion programs. Besides, ways of leveraging mobile phone technology to fit into the business correspondent model will also be discussed.
