Draw money from any ATM

HYDERABAD: The Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology's (IDRBT) service promotes the concept of shared ATM network, which allows users to draw money from other bank's ATM too.

Last year, the IDRBT introduced the National Financial Switch (NFS) that provides various banks including public sector, foreign, private and cooperative banks to share their individual ATMs with other banks.

IDRBT, which earlier fixed a price of Rs 18 exclusive of service tax, and switch fees per cash withdrawal transaction, has now revised the pricing structure to Rs 8 (exclusive of service tax) and switch fees per cash withdrawal.

However, banks have the choice to pass on this total charge to customers and even add an additional charge, or pay it and offer this service as a free benefit.

The new pricing structure will come into effect next month.

R Gandhi, director- in-charge, IDRBT, said, “Traditionally, we have clusters where like-minded banks form a group sharing network among themselves. Topping this, we also have super clusters like Visa, MasterCard, etc. too. But NFS is the single largest network in the country connecting over 5,332 ATMs in India.”

According to IDRBT, India has around nine cluster groups and around 100 banks consisting public sector, foreign, private, etc. Currently, IDRBT have around 16 banks under NFS, including Andhra Bank, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank and YES Bank.

“We don't want to be seen as a monopoly. Our services are offered on a voluntary basis. We are confident that we will be the single largest network in the country,” Gandhi said.

Explaining the necessity of a shared network, he added, “Apparently, it will lead to high-cost structure to set up independent ATMs in the long run for any bank. Hence, it is an economical gain with a shared network.”

Gandhi suggested that in areas where various banks' ATMs set up next to each other would have to be shifted to other locations over a period of time. This way, users will also benefit.