Foreign bank ATMs fell 18% in 3 yrs due to closure of operations: Govt

Presence of foreign bank ATMs in India have declined by 18 per cent over the last three years as some of them shut ATMs, while one bank closed operations here, according to official data.

There are as many as 45 foreign banks in India, including Standard Chartered Bank, Citibank, Bank of America, Barclays Bank, HSBC, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase, DBS Bank, Credit Suisse AG, BNP Paribas, Doha Bank and Qatar National Bank among others.

"As per RBI data, between September 2014 and September 2017, there is a reduction of about 18 per cent in ATMs (automated teller machines) deployment by foreign banks.

"The reason for this reduction in ATMs deployment by the foreign banks is due to the closure of ATM operations by FirstRand Bank, banking operations by RBS (ABN Amro) Bank and closure of ATMs by HSBC Bank and Standard Chartered Bank by 30 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively," the finance ministry said citing RBI data.

During September 2014 to September 2017, the number of CITI Bank ATMs fell by 5 per cent from 577 to 549, DBS Bank 3 per cent from 31 to 30, Deutsche Bank 18 per cent from 39 to 32, FirstRand Bank 100 per cent from 12 to zero and HSBC 30 per cent from 143 branches to 100.

RBS reduced its ATMs by 100 per cent from 60 to zero and Standard Chartered Bank's numbers fell 20 per cent from 279 to 223 branches.

As on June 30, 2017, Standard Chartered Bank had the highest number of branches at 100 followed by Citibank 35, Deutsche Bank 17, DBS Bank 12 and BNP Paribas 8.

Most of the other banks have branches ranging between 1-6 at suitable locations in the country, as per the RBI data.