Muthoot Finance to open White Label ATMs

International finance company Muthoot Finance has got the in-principle approval of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to open White-Label ATMs in India. On Tuesday, RBI has granted the authorization to Muthoot Finance.

White Label ATM (WLA)s are the concept from Canada, where a non-banking entity opens up ATMs. From these ATMs, customers of any bank in the country can withdraw money and for the same the card-holders have to pay a fee.

Muthoot Finance has planned to set up 1000 ATMs in the first year of operation and 8000 in the following year. As per the reports, they’re already in talk with some of the leading Indian banks and also taken the approval of share holders.

Want to know the General criteria for opening up WLAs, the follow this link on the website of RBI.

Last month RBI has permitted non-banking financial institutions to open more WLAs in regards to encourage personal banking. As per the reports, the new WLAs will be set up in non-traditional places, semi-urban and rural areas.

This move will certainly help the rural people to get access to banks easily. Last month, RBI has allowed Tata Communications Payment Solutions, a subsidiary of Tata Communications to set up WLAs around the country and soon many other such institutions will be participating in this initiative.