Union Bank To Double Its ATM Fleet In India

 To expand its service reach, Union Bank of India Ltd. says it plans to double its ATM deployments in India by the end of its fiscal year.

Union Bank deploys 2,500 ATMs in the country and it will expand to the total to 5,000 by the end of March, an official at the state-owned bank’s alternate channels department tells PaymentsSource. The bank will expand the deployments in urban areas and in smaller Tier II towns and cities, according to the official, who requests anonymity.

In March this year, the bank submitted a request for proposal for the outsourcing of installation and maintenance of 1,000 ATMs on a per-transaction basis (see story). The chosen qualified service provider will set up the ATMs in nine areas of the country, including Mumbai, Delhi, Lucknow and Bhopal, according to the bank’s rollout plan.

The bank is in the final stages of awarding the contract and soon will solicit more bidders to set up and maintain ATMs in other parts of India in the next two months, according to the official.

Banks in India have been outsourcing their ATM networks in a trend that gained momentum in 2009 following a directive from the central bank to stop charging even noncustomers for cash withdrawals (see story).

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