Chennai-based Indian Bank has decided to stop loading Rs2,000 notes in its ATMs in the city and instead load more of 200 rupee notes, in a customer friendly move, an IANS report citing a senior official said on Saturday.
"After withdrawing cash from ATMs customers come into the bank branches to exchange Rs2,000 notes for smaller denomination currency notes. In order to avoid that we have decided to stop loading of Rs2,000 denomination notes in ATMs with immediate effect," the report quoted the official as saying.
The bank will also remove all the 2,000 currency notes left in ATMs after 1 March and replace them with Rs200 notes, according to the report.
However, customers can withdraw Rs2,000 notes from bank branches and deposit such notes at bank branches and ATMs.
Indian Bank will dispense with Rs2,000 denomination notes only if customers demand it.
Indian Bank is set to be merged with Allahabad Bank as part of the government’s bank consolidation plan. However, Indian Bank's move is not followed by other public and private sector banks.
The report also quoted an official of Financial Software and Systems (FSS), the company that manages the ATM network of several banks in the country, as saying that no other bank – public or private – has instructed the company to stop loading Rs2,000 notes at ATMs.
The report "We have no instruction or information from our customer private banks to stop loading Rs2,000 notes into ATMs," V
After the merger of banks they may reduce the number of ATMs in major cities and tier III and IV will see installation of new machines, Balasubramanian, president, Financial Software and Systems (FSS), told IANS.
Banks are also opening new branches and each branch will have an on-site ATM, he added.