Gold loan
company Muthoot Finance on Tuesday said it has got in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank to set up White-Label ATMs in the country.
White-Label ATMs are to be set up by non-banking entities on behalf of 'sponsor banks' but they would not carry the brand label of any bank, and would be accessible to card-holders of all the banks for a fee.
In a BSE filing, Muthoot Finance said the RBI has "granted In-Principle Authorisation to the company for setting up White Label ATMs in India...".
Chief General Manager of Muthoot Finance K R Bijimon said the company would be setting up 1,000 such ATMs in the first year of operation and another 8,000 in the following two years. He also informed that the company was in discussions with three banks in this regard.
The company had
taken approval of shareholders in December last year through postal ballot for carrying out the business of setting up such ATMs.
RBI in February last year permitted the non-banking entities to operate and own such ATMs with the objective of enhancing the spread of ATMs in semi-urban and rural areas where bank owned ATM penetration was not growing.
Earlier this month, private sector lender Federal Bank said it has tied up with Tata Communications to install 15,000 White-Label ATMs (WLAs) across the country.
Muthoot said 65 per cent of its ATMs will be semi-urban and rural areas in tier III to tier VI centres.
It also intends to make the ATMs friendly for use by the differently-abled persons by having voice instructions, braille and access ramps wherever possible, a statement said.
Every White-Label ATM operator is required to tie up with a sponsor bank, which takes care of cash operations, dispute resolution and regulatory reporting aspects.
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