Banks are permitted to open off-site Cash Deposit Machines (CDMs)/Bunch Note Acceptor Machine (BNAMs) without prior permission of RBI

There were days where bank customers used to wait for a long spell at the banking hall, for their turn to deposit their money at cash counters. Now technology has changed.  If plans of commercial banks of installing large number of off-site CDMs/BNAMs at various places, the customers  don’t  need to walk to reach their bank for depositing their money. The installation of such cash receiving machine would largely reduce the pressure of their work force. For customer it is a great advantage as they don’t need to walk to reach their bank for depositing their money and wait at the banking hall for their turn to deposit cash.

Banks are permitted to open off-site Cash Deposit Machines (CDMs)/Bunch Note Acceptor Machine (BNAMs) without prior permission of RBI. According to RBI communiqué dated 02.02.2015, Schedule commercial banks (including RRBs) are permitted to install Cash Deposit Machines (CDMs)/Bunch Note Acceptor Machine (BNAMs) at centers/places identified by them. RBI advised commercial Banks that they need not seek its prior permission for installation of CDMs and BNAMs subject to following three conditions.

1. Adequate security arrangement should be provided wherever CDMs/BNAMs are installed.
2. The notes received through CDMs/BNAMs which are ‘suspect/counterfeit’ should not be returned to the customer.
3. An audit trail of transactions should be available to enable reporting detection of counterfeit notes.

The opening of off-site CDMs/BNAMs which are not installed in existing branch premises/ATM rooms should be reported to the Regional Offices of Regulator immediately after installation and in any case not later than two weeks after making the machine active/live.

In its master circular dated 01.07.2014 on branch licensing, RBI had advised banks that they need not seek prior permission to open off-site ATMs.