RBI renews authorisation to Vakrangee for white label ATMs

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has extended the validity of authorisation issued to Vakrangee Ltd to set up, own and operate white label automated teller machines (ATMs) in India.

The validity has been extended till March 31, 2021. White label ATMs are operated by non-bank entities.

RBI has assigned a target of minimum 1,000 ATMs to be deployed by Vakrangee for every calendar year starting 2020 for an initial period of three years.

The ATMs deployed will be in the ratio of 1:2:3 and applicable for metro and urban, semi-urban and rural regions respectively.

"ATM is one of the key services offered in our next-gen Vakrangee Kendra business model and it gives confidence to our customers, especially in rural and semi-urban centres," said Managing Director and Group CEO Dinesh Nandwana.

According to a recent report by Grant Thornton, Vakrangee is the fastest growing white label ATM player as well as the third-largest ATM operator in rural India.

Vakrangee currently has over 23,000 outlets (10,000 operational and 13,000 under on-boarding process) which are spread across 30 states and union territories, 500 districts and 6,150 postal codes. More than 70 per cent of them are in tier 5 and 6 towns.

Vakrangee's planned target is to reach at least 25,000 next-gen kendras by 2020 and further enhance it to reach three lakh outlets by 2024-25.

Incorporated in 1990, Vakrangee is a technology-driven company focused on building India's largest network of last-mile retail outlets to deliver real-time BFSI, ATM, e-commerce and logistics services to the unserved rural, semi-urban and urban markets.