Mumbai The Reserve Bank i.e. RBI has approved the increase in ATM interchange fees. According to the Financial Express newspaper, it has been decided to increase by Rs 2 in ATM interchange fees on financial transactions and Rs 1 in ATM interchange fees on non-financial transactions. This increase in ATM interchange fees will be applicable from 1 May 2025. This decision of RBI is expected to have a major impact on small banks with less ATMs. Quoting a senior bank official, the newspaper has reported that banks have not yet decided whether the ATM interchange fees to their consumers have to bear the burden or not, but whenever the ATM interchange fee was increased in the last 10 years, its burden was put on consumers.
The ATM interchange fee is the amount that a bank gives to another bank for ATM service. The ATM is usually one percent of the interchange fee transactions and the account holder has to be repaid. Earlier, RBI increased the ATM interchange fee in June 2021. The first ATM interchange fee was being Rs 17 on withdrawing cash from Financial Transactions i.e. ATM. Now it will be 19 rupees. At the same time, for non-financial transactions such as Balance Inquiry Wagaira, now ATM interchange fee will be charged Rs 7 instead of 6. The source told the newspaper that the National Payments Corporation of India i.e. NPCI had informed banks and other stakeholders on 13 March 2025 about increasing interchange fees.
It was NPCI who urged the RBI to increase the ATM interchange fees. White label ATM operators have also been urging that RBI ATMs should increase interchange fees. Such ATM operators say that the current interchange fees are facing financial problems in running their work. At present, if there is a bank account in metro cities, free transactions can be done 5 times from other bank ATMs every month. Whereas, transactions are possible 3 times from other bank ATMs in non-metro cities. Another back officer told the newspaper that due to increase in ATM interchange fees, small banks will have to pay more money to other banks. In such a situation, consumers of low ATM banks are likely to be burdened with pockets.