With banks opening millions of accounts and issuing the home-grown 'RuPay' debit cards under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, the ATM network in the country could see a ramp-up from the current 1.82 lakh to three lakh in the next one-and-a-half years.Reason: debit card acceptance infrastructure needs to be created so that they can be used for transactions such as withdrawal of money and remittance.Predicting a jump in ATMs, Abhaya Prasad Hota, MD and CEO, National Payments Corporation of India, said it is important that the card acceptance infrastructure, especially ATMs, is built up."How do we build the (card) acceptance infrastructure? That is where the big challenge is...With so many cards being issued, where will they be used unless ATMs are installed? Once the ATM infrastructure is in place, the card usage will increase," said Hota.Click here to read more.Tags: Industry News
