The Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday announced a penalty for banks and non-banking entities if the automated teller machines, or ATMs, operated by them, run out of cash for more than 10 hours a month.
From October 1, banks will be penalised Rs 10,000 if ATMs under them run out of cash beyond the stipulated time limit, the RBI said in a release. In case of non-banking entities, or “white label ATM operators” too, the banks meeting their cash requirements will have to pay the penalty. The banks may later recover the amount from them.
Under the new system, banks will have to submit a statement on downtime of ATMs on account of cash running out to the RBI. These statements have to be submitted within the first five days of every month.
In its letter to the banks, the RBI said that it had conducted a review of downtime of ATMs on account of cash running out.
“…It was observed that ATM operations affected by cash-outs lead to non-availability of cash and cause avoidable…