ATMs can't 'suck' cash any longer

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked all banks to immobilise the “cash retraction facility”, a feature that enables ATMs to “suck” bank notes if they are not collected immediately at the time of withdrawal.

However, customers now got to be cautious now as they cannot claim the money from the bank, which was the case when the facility was in place. While some banks have already removed the “cash retraction facility”, others are in the process of doing so. In line with RBI directions, banks are also informing their customers about it.

The facility was initially implemented to avoid the incidence of someone else getting the money, if the actual cardholder forgot to collect the cash before leaving the ATM. However, the RBI in the past one year came across banks reporting several instances of frauds pertaining to mis-use of the facility.

The RBI discussed the matter at a special meeting of the National Financial Switch Steering Committee, where disabling of the ‘cash retraction facility’ was taken up and accepted after a suceessful pilot project.