Who can forget the demonetization?
Those long queues at the ATM and most of them went home disappointed. It was one of the worst ever.
Now that we’ve mostly recovered from that nightmare something else is coming in our way. 50% of the total ATMs available in India may go down by March 2019 due to the recent regulatory guidelines for ATMs hardware and software upgrades.
As per the CATMi Director V Balasubramanian the recent mandates on cash management standards and the Cassette Swap method of loading cash require a huge investment. Only to implement the Cassette Swap would need an additional outlay of Rs. 3,500 crore and that’s going to put some really big pressure on them.
As of now, India has a total of 2.38 lakh ATMs and approximately 1.13 lakh of them will shut down by March 2018. The process will reportedly start from January onwards only. This is when we need a million of total ATMs rightly distributed in urban, semi-urban and rural areas to cater to the whole population.
Get ready to stand in long queues once again.
