The Reserve Bank of India has issued ‘certificate of authorisation’ to four non-banking companies, including Tata Communications Payment Solutions and Prizm Payment Services, to set up white label ATMs in the country, according to a statement issued on Friday.
The other firms that have been issued licences to set up and operate white label ATMs are Vakrangee Ltd and Muthoot Finance Ltd.
Tata Communications Payment, Prizm Payment and Muthoot Finance have already launched their services and Vakrangee is likely to commence its service shortly. Vakrangee is an IT firm which provides e-governance solutions.
While Tata Communications Payment, a subsidiary of Tata Communications, launched white label ATMs under the brand name Indicash in June 2013, Prizm Payment—now part of Japanese firm Hitachi— launched its services last month as ‘Money Spot ATM’. Muthoot Finance launched its first white label ATM in New Delhi early this week.
The cash dispensing machines that are owned and operated by non-banking companies are called white label ATMs. Presently, almost all ATMs in the country are operated by banks.
Earlier in 2012, the central bank issued guidelines allowing non-banking companies to open and operate white label ATMs, in order to augment the spread of ATMs in semi-urban and rural areas where bank are unable to strengthen their infrastructure to roll out ATMs.
Under the new guidelines, certain minimum number of white label ATMs need to be installed in these areas within a year as per the scheme opted by the respective operators, the central bank said.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)