Suryoday Small Finance Bank to shut down its ATMs from Oct 1

Suryoday Small Finance Bank informed its customers on Tuesday that it will shut down its automated teller machines (ATMs). The bank said it will give users the option to use their debit card at ATMs of other banks. The lender will shut down its ATMs from October 1. "Due to operational reasons, Suryoday Bank ATMs will be discontinued with effect from 1st Oct 2021. However, you can continue to use your Suryoday Bank ATM/debit card at any other bank's ATM for your cash withdrawal requirements," the bank said in its message to customers.

The small finance bank said that this decision came due to viability issues as not many people were using their ATMs. The bank added that customers can use internet banking and mobile banking for other services.

"We realised that far too many customers were not using our ATMs, we could not make it a profit centre, hence we decided that we give customers free transactions on other bank ATMs rather than continuing to keep these machines," said MD of Suryoday R Baskar Babu, as mentioned in Times of India.

He said that they have very less volume of cash transactions as nobody walks to an ATM to withdraw cash with the proliferation of UPI and wallets.

Suryoday Small Finance Bank has 26 ATMs and 550 branches. Babu said that nearly 80 per cent of the business is now digital, and hence spending money to maintain a small network of ATMs is futile.

The lender is now formulating a strategy, according to reports, to offer 5-7 free transactions per month, where they will be allowed to use ATMs of other banks.

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