ATMs: What does White Label, Brown Label, and On-line, off-line ATM mean?

Updated and re-posted on 11.06.2021

Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) are the alternative banking channels available to bank customers primarily for withdrawal of cash. The money can be withdrawn from ATM at any point of time round the clock convenient to the bank customers. The Automatic Teller Machines are generally identified as White Label, Brown Label, and on- line, off line ATMs. They are called so because of their ownership, service contract of the service provider with the sponsoring bank and the locations of the ATM, which are explained below.

White Label ATMs

White Label ATMs (WLAs) are the ATMs owned by non-banking entities. These ATMs do not display the logos of any bank. Bank Customers can withdraw money from debit cards/credit cards/prepaid cards issued by the banks at WLAs but they have to pay fee for the service provided to them.

Brown Label ATMs

In Brown label ATMs; the hardware of ATM machines is owned by a service provider.  The service provider himself takes the responsibility of identifying the ATM site, negotiating with the landlord, arranging power supply  and interior decoration of the ATM kiosk. The fully operational ATM kiosk will be leased out to the sponsoring bank. The responsibility of maintenance of the leased ATM kiosk remains in the hands of service provider and the sponsor bank takes the responsibility of cash management and connectivity of ATM to its banking network.

Unlike WLA, the Brown Label ATMs display the brand name of sponsor bank. The private sector banks like ICICI bank, Axis bank, Dhana Lakshmi bank and Ratnakar bank are presently having Brown Label ATM system.

On-site and off-site ATMs

The ATMs which are located at the branch premises are called on-site ATMs and the ATMs located away from the branch is called off-site ATM. Off-site ATMs are generally located at important places like near Bus stand, Railway stations, Airports, Colleges, Market places etc., which are very useful to travelers and the general public.

There were 213575 ( 1,15,605 onsite ATMs and 97,970 off-site ones) as on March 31, 2021. About 90 crore debit cards issued by different banks were outstanding at end-March 2021.The first ATM in India was set up in 1987 by HSBC in Mumbai. In the following twelve years, about 1,500 ATMs were set up in India. In 1997, the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) set up Swadhan, the first network of shared ATMs which allowed interoperable transactions.

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