There has been a tremendous change in the financial services arena across the world in the last few years. The globalization, deregulation and rapid technological advancements have changed the scenario while integrating the Indian economy with the global economy. India has initiated liberalization, which has opened up the banking sector to provide better coverage to the Indian citizen and augment the flow of long-term financial resources. As a new strategy of banking business for some years, the scheduled commercial banks have adopted innovative banking practices. Innovative banking refers to using new techniques, new methods and novel schemes in deposit mobilization, credit deployment and bank management.
The most visible and perhaps the most revolutionary element of the virtual banking revolution is the cash machine or the Automated Teller Machine (ATM), as it is more popularly known. The introduction of ATM service has come to change the entire gamut of the way the banking and financial services are operated in the world. ATMs are known for their speed and convenience giving 24-hour access to bank customers to operate their bank account in the physical environment with the help of machines. There are 21,000 ATMs against 55,000 branches, pegging the ratio of ATMs to branches at 1:3. Interestingly, around half of the ATMs are off-site ones, which mean that they double up as branches for basic services. |
