RBI relaxes norms for the deployment of ATMs by white-label players

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has relaxed the deployment norms of automated teller machines (ATMs) by white-label players, who will now not need to put up thousands of units every year.
• The central bank is for manageable annual targets, a major departure from the stiff run-rates set under the licence terms in 2012, sources aware of the development said.
• ATMs set up, owned, and operated by non-banks are called white-label ATMs (WLATMs). Non-bank ATM operators are authorised under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, by the RBI.
•  Deployments by white-label ATM (WLATM) firms have been poor at 23,597 units, seven years after they began operations.
• This is way off the 1,000-25,000 ATMs that would have been added annually by each operator based on the schemes they had opted for.
•  Industry sources say as many as 200,000 WLATMs would have been deployed if the run rate had been maintained.