The Reserve Bank of India has allowed White Label ATM (WLA) operators to accept international cards. The central bank said in a statement that in doing so the WLA operators will have to ensure they have established technical connectivity with the respective card network operators either directly or through their sponsor banks. For cards issued under any other card scheme, the routing and settlement should take place based on the bilateral arrangement put in place, the statement said. The RBI had come out with final guidelines on WLAs or third-party automated teller machines, which allow for any bank account holder to transact in June 2012 and many companies including Tata Communications, Muthoot Finance, FIS and Prism among others are already operating WLAs. The RBI has asked the operators to use Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) under which the currency conversion rate will be obtained from an authorized dealer bank. The RBI has also allowed the WLA operators to tie up with any commercial bank for cash supply at ATMs. At present, the WLA operators have to depend on their sponsor bank alone for cash supply arrangement, it said, adding that the responsibility of the quality and genuineness of cash loaded at such WLAs would be that of the cash supplier bank.
