The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has constituted a sub-committee of six banks to make suggestions on cost and charges for the use of ATMs. NPCI MD and CEO A.P. Hota said the sub-committee will look into the cost structure of ATM transactions and the reasonableness and quantum of increase in interchange charges which the customer’s bank (issuing bank) pays to the ATM owning bank (acquiring bank). The sub-committee consists of representatives from State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank. It is expected to submit report in a month’s time. The decision to form the sub-committee was taken at a meeting of the steering committee of NPCI. Banks have been complaining about the non-viability of operating ATMs, after some of the state governments insisted on deploying guards round the clock at ATMs following an attack on a woman customer at a bank ATM in Bangalore. The Indian Banks Association has said additional security arrangements will push up cost of operating a single ATM by up to Rs 40,000 a month. The IBA has asked RBI to cap the number of free transactions to five per month across any ATM network from the current practice of giving them unlimited transactions at own bank ATMs and five at other banks’ ATMs. The sixth transaction onwards, the banks typically charge a customer Rs 20 per transaction.
