Number of ATMs in country at over 213,000, says Finance Ministry

The number of ATMs across the country exceeded 2.13 lakh at the end of September this year, and more than 47 percent of these are in rural and semi-urban areas, the finance ministry said in parliament on Monday.

According to the RBI data, scheduled commercial banks have installed 2,13,145 ATMs (ATMs) by September 2021. In addition, 27,837 White Label ATMs (WLA) have also been installed by WLA operators until September 2021, Finance Minister Bhagwat Karad said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

"Of these, 47.4 percent of ATMs are installed in rural and semi-urban centers," Karad said.

When asked about the target to install ATMs by 2022, he said the RBI has informed that WLA operators must deploy a minimum of 1,000 ATMs each year and maintain a 1:2:3 betting ratio for metro and urban, semi - respectively. urban and rural regions".

He said the WLA scheme was introduced as a comprehensive delivery channel for banking services, especially in tier III and VI centers.