Guidelines on Off-site/Mobile Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) by State Co-operative Banks

RBI/2014–2015/556 DCBR.CO.RCB.No.BC.29/19.51.008/2014–15

April 16, 2015

Sec­tion 23 of the Bank­ing Reg­u­la­tion Act, 1949 (As Applic­a­ble to Co-oper­a­tive Soci­eties) — Guide­lines on Off-site/­Mo­bile Auto­mat­ed Teller Machines (ATMs)

Please refer to our cir­cu­lar RPCD.No.BC.114/07.06.00–94/95 dat­ed Feb­ru­ary 1, 1995, in terms of which State Coop­er­a­tive Banks (StCBs) are per­mit­ted to install on-site ATMs with­out obtain­ing pri­or per­mis­sion from RBI. In terms of para 27 of the First Bi-month­ly Mon­e­tary Pol­i­cy State­ment, 2015–16, it has now been decid­ed that the State Co-oper­a­tive Banks may be allowed to install Off-site ATMs/Mobile ATMs as per their need and poten­tial in their area of oper­a­tion with­out pri­or per­mis­sion from RBI sub­ject to sat­is­fy­ing the fol­low­ing criteria.

1. CRAR not being less than 9 per cent
2. No default in main­te­nance of CRR/SLR dur­ing the pre­ced­ing finan­cial year
3. Net NPA being less than 5 per cent
4. The bank should have a track record of reg­u­la­to­ry com­pli­ance and no mon­e­tary penal­ty should have been imposed on the bank on account of vio­la­tion of RBI directives/guidelines dur­ing last two finan­cial years

The above para­me­ters should be as assessed by NABARD in their lat­est inspec­tion report.

2. The StCBs may ensure that the pro­pos­als for the instal­la­tion of Off-site/­Mo­bile ATMs are duly approved by their Board of Directors.

3. The con­di­tions sub­ject to which Off-site/­Mo­bile ATMs can be oper­a­tionalised by the StCBs are fur­nished in Annex‑I.

4. The StCBs shall report to the con­cerned Region­al Office of Reserve Bank under whose juris­dic­tion the Head Office of the StCB is func­tion­ing imme­di­ate­ly after oper­a­tional­i­sa­tion of off­site / mobile ATMs and in any case not lat­er than 15 days, as per the for­mat enclosed (Annex II) and obtain autho­riza­tion under sec­tion 23 of the B. R. Act, 1949 (AACS) from the con­cerned Region­al Office of Reserve Bank.

Yours faith­ful­ly,

(Suma Var­ma)
Prin­ci­pal Chief Gen­er­al Manager

Enclo­sure: Two

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Annex‑I

Con­di­tions sub­ject­ed to which Off-site/­Mo­bile ATMs can be oper­a­tionalised by StCBs

1. The StCB should be CBS com­pli­ant and sat­is­fy eli­gi­bil­i­ty cri­te­ria based on lat­est inspec­tion Report.
2. The busi­ness trans­act­ed at the off-site ATMs shall be record­ed in the books of the respec­tive branch / base branch / Cen­tralised Data Centre.
3. Mobile ATMs will have to be linked to a branch and shall be oper­at­ed strict­ly with­in the area of oper­a­tion of the bank.
4. No per­son oth­er than the secu­ri­ty guard should be post­ed at such Off Site ATM centre.
5. The StCB should make ade­quate stand-by arrange­ments for meet­ing the cash require­ments of the ATM.
6. The StCB should ensure that only prop­er­ly sort­ed and exam­ined notes are put into cir­cu­la­tion through the ATM.
7. ATMs may be pro­vid­ed with ramps so that wheel chair users/persons with dis­abil­i­ties can eas­i­ly access them and also make arrange­ments in such a way that the height of the ATM does not cre­ate an imped­i­ment in its use by a wheel­chair user.
8. At least one third of new ATMs installed should be talk­ing ATMs with Braille key­pads and placed strate­gi­cal­ly in con­sul­ta­tion with oth­er banks to ensure that at least one talk­ing ATM with Braille key­pad is gen­er­al­ly avail­able in each local­i­ty for cater­ing to needs of visu­al­ly impaired per­sons. Banks may also bring the loca­tions of such talk­ing ATMs to the notice of their visu­al­ly impaired customers.
9. Third par­ty adver­tise­ment on the ATM screens / Net­work, such as dis­play of prod­ucts of oth­er man­u­fac­tur­ers / deal­ers / ven­dors is not per­mit­ted. How­ev­er, there is no objec­tion to banks uti­liz­ing the ATM screens for dis­play­ing their own products.

Sub­mis­sion of Returns

1. The StCBs should report full details of the Off-site/­Mo­bile ATMs installed by them to the con­cerned Region­al Office imme­di­ate­ly after oper­a­tional­i­sa­tion and in any case not lat­er than 15 days, as per the for­mat enclosed (Annex II).
2. Sim­i­lar­ly, details of shift­ing / clo­sure etc., of Off-site/­Mo­bile ATMs should be report­ed to the con­cerned Region­al Office imme­di­ate­ly after such shift­ing / clo­sure and in any case not lat­er than 15 days.
3. The StCB should con­tin­ue to sub­mit a quar­ter­ly state­ment to Depart­ment of Sta­tis­tics and Infor­ma­tion Man­age­ment (DSIM), Cen­tral Office, Ban­dra Kurla Com­plex, Mum­bai and to the con­cerned Region­al Offices in the pre­scribed Pro­for­mae I & II as advised in our cir­cu­lar RPCD.CO.RF.No.BC.9/07.06.00/2005–06 dat­ed July 06, 2005.

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Annex-II

Part‑A:

State­ment of oper­a­tional­i­sa­tion of off-site ATM by the bank to be sub­mit­ted as and when effected.

Name of the StCB:

S.No

Com­plete Address of ATM installed

Pop­u­la­tion group wise clas­si­fi­ca­tion of center

Details of base branch

Date of open­ing of ATM

Part‑B:

State­ment of oper­a­tional­i­sa­tion of mobile ATMs by the bank to be sub­mit­ted as and when effected.

S.No

Cen­tre District/State

Details of Base Branch

Pop­u­la­tion group wise clas­si­fi­ca­tion of center

Centers/paces to be vis­it­ed by Mobile ATM

Day of visit

Date of oper­a­tional­i­sa­tion of Mobile ATM