With digital banking on the rise what will happen to ATMs?

As the government is giving its support to digital transactions post demonetisation and people are adopting it will fewer apprehensions, it can be easily predicted that soon India will have more and more online transactions that cash transactions. 

In this scenario what will happen to the ATMs? 

The automated teller machine or ATM is actually a cash-venting machine and its operators get paid as per transaction basis. 

Now since, the demonetisation and with rising digitisation it has to be seen whether the ATM machines will have any relevance or not. 

As per V. Balasubramanian, President, Financial Software and Systems (FSS), ATMs demand might not be affected in next few years but looking at the changing scenario, it is hard to predict anything. 

On the other hand, as per K. Srinivas, Managing Director and CEO of BTI Payments Pvt Ltd, ATM numbers should go up in India would for the next 15 to 20 years.

Srinivas also stated that in advanced countries where digital banking is popular and widely used, still, cash transactions do take place. He believes that over time the ATM operators will find newer ways to reinvent themselves and offer additional services. 

In India, a lot of rural places do not have ATM machines and also for online transactions there is no smartphone or internet connectivity, therefore ruling out ATMs is not an ideal scenario in India where the demography is diversified. 

The government is trying its best to promote and encourage digital transactions but achieving the same at a unified level will not be easy and till then ATMs will have its demand, relevance, and requirement. 

• Demonetisation
• ATM
• ATMs
• Digital transactions