Banks allowed to run ads on ATM screens

Banks are likely to make the most of the time you spend in front of their ATMs. They may use the ATM screens for advertising.

The Finance Ministry has issued a notification allowing them to advertise either their own products and services or those of broking firms, mutual funds, insurance companies and pension funds on the ATM screen.

Going by the notification, banks can squeeze in an advertisement during the seconds (after keying in the amount to be withdrawn, the machine takes a few seconds — 10-20 seconds — to process the request) you wait before the ATM to withdraw cash.

The notification

The notification reads: In exercise of the powers conferred by the Banking Regulation Act, the Central Government hereby specifies “display of financial products conforming to the regulatory framework as provided by the RBI, SEBI, IRDA and PFRDA, on the Automated Teller Machines” as a form of business in which it is lawful for a banking company to engage.

Banks can bring down the cost per transaction by generating some revenue through advertisements, say bankers.

“Thanks to the five free ATM transactions per month norm at other bank ATMs, other banks' customers are using our ATMs for transactions.

“If we can showcase our products and services to them through advertisements, we can expand our customer base,” said a senior public sector bank official.

Some precautions

Before embarking on advertising on ATMs, banks have to take certain precautions.

Given that an advertisement will appear during the few idle seconds when the cash withdrawal request is being processed, bankers say there should be a clear header at the top end of the ATM screen indicating that the transaction is being processed.

Else, seeing the advertisement come on the screen, there are chances that the customer could presume that his transaction has failed. Further, if the customer is riveted to an advertisement, he may even forget to collect cash.

Following the notification, banks have approached the Reserve Bank of India about the precautions that need to be taken for advertising on ATMs.

As per National Payment Corporation of India's data, the 77 banks that are connected to its National Financial Switch collectively had a network of 91,324 ATMs.

The number of cash withdrawals and the number of balance enquiries accounted for 74 per cent and 24 per cent respectively of the total volume of 15.67 crore transactions in February.

kram@thehindu.co.in