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RBI to change ATM cash withdrawal rules. Check details here
The changes were announced on the basis of the suggestions of a committee set up by RBI in June 2019, under the chairmanship of the chief executive of the Indian Banks’ Association to review the entire gamut of ATM charges and fees with a particular focus on interchange structure for ATM transactions, news agency PTI reported.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday announced changes in the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) rules with regard to cash withdrawal. These changes include an increase in charges for transactions beyond the free monthly permissible limit, a new free ATM transaction limit and an increase in the interchange fee per transaction.
“The recommendations of the panel were comprehensively examined. It is also observed that the last change in interchange fee structure for ATM transactions was in August 2012, while the charges payable by customers were last revised in August 2014. A substantial time has thus elapsed since these fees were last changed,” the central bank said in its circular.
The changes were announced on the basis of the suggestions of a committee set up by RBI in June 2019, under the chairmanship of the chief executive of the Indian Banks’ Association to review the entire gamut of ATM charges and fees with a particular focus on interchange structure for ATM transactions, news agency PTI reported.
Here are the changes announced by the RBI in ATM cash withdrawal rules:
1. Exceeding monthly limit of free transactions:
Customers will have to pay ₹21 per transaction, instead of ₹20 if they exceed their monthly limit of free transactions. This increase will be effective from January 1, 2022.
“To compensate the banks for the higher interchange fee and given the general escalation in costs, they are allowed to increase the customer charges to ₹21 per transaction. This increase shall be effective from January 1, 2022,” RBI said in its circular.
2. New free ATM transaction limit:
Customers will continue to remain eligible for five free transactions, including financial and non-financial, per month from their own bank ATMs. They will also be eligible for three free transactions from the ATMs of other banks in metro centres and five transactions in non-metro centres.
3. Increase in interchange fee:
From August 1 this year, banks are allowed to increase the interchange fee per transaction from ₹15 to ₹17 for financial transactions and from ₹5 to ₹6 for non-financial transactions in all centres.
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RBI said these charges have been allowed to increase due to the increasing cost of ATM deployment and expenses towards the maintenance of ATM incurred by banks or white label ATM operators. PTI reported that as of March 31, 2021, there are 115,605 onsite ATMs and 97,970 off-site ATMs in the country and around 900 million debit cards issued by different banks were outstanding on March-end.
