Banks have to pay fine if ATMs run out of cash: RBI

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to levy monetary charges on ATMs that run out of cash from October this year. The RBI has officially stated that “A review of downtime of ATMs due to cash-outs was undertaken and it was observed that ATM operations affected by cash-outs lead to non-availability of cash and cause avoidable inconvenience to the members of the public,”

“Therefore, been decided that the banks/ White Label ATM Operators (WLAOs) shall strengthen their systems/ mechanisms to monitor the availability of cash in ATMs and ensure timely replenishment to avoid cash-outs. Any non-compliance in this regard shall be viewed seriously and shall attract a monetary penalty.” the statement further added.

RBI further informed the press that the ‘Scheme of Penalty for non-replenishment of ATMs. The penalty of ₹10,000 per ATM will be levied in the event of a cash-out situation for more than 10 hours in a month. RBI further instructed the banks to submit a system-generated statement on the downtime of ATMs due to non- replenishment of cash to the ‘Issue Department’ of RBI under whose jurisdiction these ATMs are located.

ANI quoted RBI saying, “In the case of white label ATMs, the penalty would be charged to the bank which is meeting the cash requirement of that particular white label ATM. The bank, may, at its discretion, recover the penalty from the white label ATM operator”

The central bank further said, “Appeal against the decision of the Competent Authority, if required, may be made by the banks/ WLAOs to the Regional Director/Officer-in-Charge of the Regional Office concerned, within one month from the date of imposition of penalty. As the intention of the Scheme is to ensure replenishment of ATMs in time, appeals would be considered only in cases of genuine reasons beyond the control of bank/ WLAOs such as the imposition of lockdown by the State/ Administrative authorities, strike, etc,”

In the case of WLAOs, RBI stated that the banks which are meeting their cash requirement shall furnish a separate statement on behalf of WLAOs on cash-out of such ATMs due to non-replenishment of cash. Such statements shall be submitted every month within five days of the following month i.e., first such statement for the month of October 2021 shall be submitted on or before November 05, 2021, to the Issue Department concerned.