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State Bank of India to add up to 5K ATMs this fiscal year

July 2, 2014

The State Bank of India announced this week that it will deploy 3,000 to 5,000 additional ATMs in its current fiscal year. The bank hopes the new installations will help to improve its ratio of ATMs per customer.

Currently that balance is one ATM for every 2,500 debit cards issued by the bank, a report by Economic Times said. For other banks, the average is one ATM to 1,500 to 1,700 customers. SBI's total ATM count is 43,515 units.

SBI also expects to save a significant amount on interchange fees by reducing lines at its ATMs, thus encouraging customers to transact in-network. Last year the bank paid interchange fees totaling 991 crore rupees ($166 million), due to the imbalance in ATM ratios between itself and other banks.

Currently, bank customers are allowed five free transactions per month at off-us ATMs; many Indian banks are lobbying to eliminate free transactions in large urban areas, while retaining them in underserved semi-urban and rural areas.