Muthoot Finance gets RBI nod to set-up White Label ATMs

New Delhi: Gold loan company Muthoot Finance said on Tuesday that it has got in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to set up White-Label ATMs in the country.

White-Label ATMs are to be set up by non-banking entities on behalf of 'sponsor banks' but they would not carry the brand label of any bank, and would be accessible to card-holders of all the banks for a fee.

Muthoot Finance said in a filing to the BSE that the RBI has "granted In-Principle Authorisation to the company for setting up White Label ATMs in India".

Muthoot Finance would be setting up 1,000 such ATMs in the first year of operation and another 8,000 in the following two years, said K R Bijimon, chief general manager of the company.

He also informed that the company was in discussions with three banks in this regard.

The company had taken approval of shareholders in December last year through postal ballot for carrying out the business of setting up such ATMs.

RBI in February last year permitted the non-banking entities to operate and own such ATMs with the objective of enhancing the spread of ATMs in semi-urban and rural areas where bank owned ATM penetration was not growing.

Earlier this month, private sector lender Federal Bank said it has tied up with Tata Communications to install 15,000 White-Label ATMs (WLAs) across the country.

Source: http://profit.ndtv.com/news/corporates/article-muthoot-finance-gets-rbi-nod-to-set-up-white-label-atms-323733