Raise of ATM transaction charges demanded by ATM operators

Mumbai, April 18: Bank customers may be hit as ATM operators have demanded higher "interchange rates" for ATM transactions to enable them to comply with recent stringent RBI guidelines, an industry body said here on Wednesday.

Presently, all banks charge a fee of Rs 15 for each cash and Rs 5 for all non-cash transactions from each other for use of their ATMs by other banks' customers -- which is recovered from the (user) customers -- beyond the five minimum free transactions.

Now, the Confederation of ATM Industry (CATMi) has demanded that this should go up by at least Rs 3-5 per transaction to enable the (ATM) operators to recover their costs which have skyrocketed in recent times.

CATMi Director K. Srinivas said that recently the RBI has issued guidelines that will result in overall cost hike for the ATM service providers.