50 percent of ATMs in India will be closed till March 2019, threatens to create conditions like Note Ban

Industry organization Confederation of ATM Industry (CATMi) in India warned on Wednesday that due to the recent standards of ATM hardware and software upgradation and cash management schemes, 50 percent of ATMs would be stopped in the absence of operating till March 2019.

If such a large number of ATMs are closed in the country, people may have to face the problem of cash withdrawal. At the same time, millions of people are at risk of being unemployed because usually one ATM gets jobs from one to two people.

CATMi's spokesperson said that there are about two lakh 38 thousand ATMs in India at this time, out of which 1 lakh 13 thousand ATMs including one lakh off-site and more than 15,000 white label ATMs will be closed.

He said that due to the regulatory guidelines for upgrading ATM hardware and software, recent terms of cash management standards and cash loading cassette swap method, the organization has to be bound.

He said that this step would also lead to huge unemployment in the industry which would be harmful to financial services in the entire economy.