UBI plans 25k PoS in rural India

Mumbai, Nov. 13: The Union Bank of India, the fifth largest PSU bank plans to offer cash withdrawal facilities at 25,000 point of sales (PoS) terminals in rural India.

While speaking with the media persons on the sidelines of a conference Mr Pravin Bansal, general manager, transaction banking and third party products of Union Bank, said: “We would be tying up with the local shops in those villages which don’t have any banking channels. Through these shops, we will be extending the facility of cash withdrawal of up to Rs 1,000 using the debit card. These shops would only need a telephone connection and the debit card swipe machine will be provided to them.”

We are planning to launch this service in December 2009 and we target to have 25,000 point of sales by March 2010, he added.

Currently, the cash withdrawal facility using the plastic card is available only at the automated teller machines (ATM). According to the banking experts as on May 31, 2009 the number of ATMs and PoS terminals in the country stood at about 45,000 and 4,70,000 respectively. For enhancing the customer convenience in using plastic cards, the Reserve Bank of India, recently, decided to permit cash withdrawal facilities at PoS terminals of up to Rs 1,000 per day.

The Union Bank would be the first bank to extend this service. According to the Union Bank officials the bank is currently adding about 15,000 customers per day and the new initiative would give a fillip to add more customers in rural India.

Union Bank on Friday also announced that it had tied up with the Master Card for the issuance of a debit card that would enable customers to access over nine lakh ATMs around the world.

Currently the bank has a similar tieup with the Visa Card.