Muthoot to invest Rs 300 cr for White Label ATMs

It plans to start 1,000 white-label ATMs in the first year, 2,000 in the second year and 6,000 in the third year

Gold loan financing company Muthoot Finance Ltd plans to invest around Rs 300 crore for setting up 9,000 white label ATMs (WLAs) in the country in the next three years, managing director George Alexander Muthoot.

In an interaction with analysts, he said the company considered WLAs not just as an income generator but would also like to take the service to its customers. “A lot of our customers would like to use ATMs and we are trying to provide the service to them. With this, we get more connect with them,” he said.

“We have to wait and see whether there would be other income on this. The model has to be worked on as there are certain conditions under which this can be done,” he added.

In June, 2013, the company received in-principle authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to set up WLAs in the country. The plan was to start 1,000 WLAs in the first year,  2,000 in the second year and 6,000 in the third year, the  company had said in June. It took a strategic decision to establish 65 per cent of these WLAs in semi-urban and rural areas and they will be user-friendly, even accessible by the differently-abled people.

In September, the company received Foreign Investment Promotion Board  clearance to its application to start WLAs. After this, it has to go through a few more procedures to see ATMs being launched, said a company official.