Cardless cash withdrawal to be introduced at all bank ATMs: RBI 

Reserve Bank of India on Friday, April 8 announced that it has proposed to make cardless cash withdrawal facility available at all ATMs across all banks in India.

At present, the facility of card-less cash withdrawal through ATMs is limited only
to a few banks.

"It is now proposed to make card-less cash withdrawal facility available across all banks and ATM networks using the UPI. In addition to enhancing ease of transactions, the absence of the need for physical card for such transactions would help prevent frauds such as card skimming, card cloning, etc," the RBI statement said.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das was announcing decisions made at the three-day Monetary Policy Committee meet. Das said that the facility is proposed to be made available through the Unified Payments Interface or UPI.

“In addition to enhancing ease of transactions, the absence of the need for physical cards for such transactions would help prevent frauds such as card skimming, card cloning, etc," the RBI governor added.

A cardless cash withdrawal facility does not require a bank customer to use their debit or credit cards while withdrawing cash from ATMs. The system is presently available at various banks and was introduced in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic when several people were reluctant to go to the ATMs.

This system will curb ATM frauds as it uses mobile PIN to generate cash, The cardless cash withdrawal system uses the UPI facility to carry out the work.

The cardless cash withdrawal facility can be used for self-withdrawal of money. However, not many banks have this facility yet and there is a daily transaction limit. This ranges from Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000, as per the facilities offered by the particular bank.

A few banks presently also charge an additional transaction charge from its customers. With the RBI’s new announcement, more banks are expected to join in to provide the service to its cardholders.

Cardholders of various banks including SBI, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Bank of Baroda, among others, can withdraw cash even without their debit cards, through their phones. The cardholder mostly has to use a mobile banking app and raise a request to withdraw cash at the ATMs if they do not possess their debit cards.