Most ATMs ready to spew new notes; RBI recalibrates 1.8 lakh ATMs

The task force set up by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recalibrated about 1.8 lakh ATMs to dispense the new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 denominated currency notes. The remaining 20,000 ATMs will be re-calibrated in a week.

The ATMs in the country are run by NCR, Diebold and AGN Wincor, which together put about 45,000 ground staff to reconfigure their ATMs in the biggest-ever exercise of its kind.

Navroze Dastur, managing director, NCR Corporation, India & South Asia, told DNA Money, "Recalibration of ATMs is almost complete. The entire exercise of recalibrating two lakh ATMs in the country was being coordinated from our Vikhroli office. Now all these ATMs can dispense the new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes, besides the Rs 100 and Rs 50 denomination currencies."

After the demonetization was announced, a task force of 45 people from three ATM and the cash transit companies such as Brinks, CMS and SIS was formed in consultation with the RBI. NCR has about 1 lakh ATMs, Diebold 50,000 and AGN Wincor about 35,000 in the country.

The problems arose when the new currencies of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 issued by the government after demonetization had different dimensions from the earlier currencies, making it impossible to dispense from the existing ATMs. The cassettes in each of these ATMs had to physically reconfigured to the size of these new notes.

The ATMs in the metros were reconfigured within the first ten days after demonetization and started dispensing the new notes. "The Vikhroli NCR office was the centre from where we planned the entire exercise. About 50,000 field staff and engineers panned all across the country to achieve this," Dastur said.

In some places, they also got help from bank staff who helped them in re-configuring the ATMs. But the problem is again with the availability of currency. While majority of the ATMs are dispensing Rs 2,000 notes, very few are dispensing the Rs 500 or Rs 100 notes.

Rajeev Rishi, head of the Indian Banks Association (IBA), said, "In the next few weeks all ATMs will start dispensing Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes once the ATMs are recalibrated. Banks have been working on holidays and the ATM vendors are also working on a war-footing to complete the exercise. These things, as you know, take time and we are trying to manage this in the shortest time possible."

Banks are dividing the cash they are allocated by the RBI to distribute it between their branches and the ATMs. Many ATMs are refilled in the night so that people who are coming back from office can withdraw it. However, bankers said that customers are also trying to hoard cash by withdrawing more than they require, resulting in the cash in ATMs depleting in about 15 minutes.