Banks may go slow on issue of debit-cum-ATM cards

The free use of any ATMs for cash withdrawal (since April 1) may have led to an unanticipated casualty: Banks are likely to go slow on the issue of debit-cum-ATM cards. According to top officials of different banks, a bank would end up paying anything between Rs 12 and Rs 18 for every transaction conducted on another bank’s ATM by its customer “This will mean a big hit on the banks as they cannot be passed on to the customers now. Even abroad, free transactions across ATMs are not offered for the same reason. I don’t see any reason for RBI’s rush to implement this from April 1,” the head of a public sector bank told. While big banks like SBI and large private banks may have lesser outgo, smaller banks with fewer ATMs may find it difficult to bear the cost of ‘foreign’ ATM transactions by their customers. As a way out, some banks may eventually become cautious about the number of new cards to be issued. “We are planning to discontinue giving ATM-debit cards to students and other categories who open loan accounts to cut costs,” an official said. The ATMs of many private sector banks - ICICI Bank, HDFC and Axis Bank, among some others - still continue to turn down transaction requests from customers of other banks, though they deny it officially. At present, a new ATM costs about Rs 8 lakh for installation and Rs 60,000-80,000 towards monthly maintenance expenses. This may go up depending on rentals or real estate prices going up.