Coming soon: Cheque-reading ATMs

Need cash urgently but have already overdrawn from your account? You have a cheque from a client but it is of little use in the dead of night. Lost or misplaced your debit card and need cash to pay the party organiser for your little one's first birthday celebrations? Help is on way, as a couple of banks in India are testing a technology that facilitates instant cheque encashing at ATMs. Used widely across North America and Europe, cheque truncating machines (CTM)—the contraption that make real-time cheque verification and clearance possible—sit inside special ATMs that the world’s largest makers of these machines, like US-based NCR Corp and Diebold Inc, are now hawking to few banks in India. Governmentowned State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender, IDBI and ING Vysya are a few banks that have evinced interest in such ATMs. Banking regulator RBI too has welcomed the move, saying it will be good for customers. Pradeep Sen, MD, NCR India says that the company has been showcasing its CTM-ATMs to banks in India since last month. “We will also be launching new ATM machines, in which you can just insert a bundle of notes of any denomination. The ATMs will read the notes, and credit the amount in your account instantly,” he says. Currently, one has to put cash inside an envelope to deposit inside ATM. It gets credited in about 24 hours. There are over 48,000 ATMs in the country, split between three big makers––NCR , Diebold and Germanybased Wincor Nixdorf.