New Rs 500s in banks today, will take a week for ATMs

Hyderabad: Account-holders in the city need to wait one more week to withdraw the new Rs 500 denomination notes from ATMs, which are yet to be calibrated for the purpose. The release of the new notes was announced on Sunday. Many of those who withdrew at least Rs 4,000 from banks or ATMs got two Rs 2,000 notes. Most of them found it difficult to exchange it into smaller denominations.

The Reserve Bank of India has supplied more notes of smaller denominations including the new Rs 500 notes to the city and it will be distributed in banks on Tuesday morning. Bankers, however, said the supply of Rs 500 denomination notes would not meet current requirements. Secretary for All India Bank Employees’ Association B. Seetha Rambabu said that more Rs 2,000 notes were reaching banks than those of lower denominations like Rs 50, Rs 100 and Rs 500. "Bankers will issue the Rs 500 denomination from Tuesday, but it may take time to get them at ATMs,” he said.

The Automated Teller Machines require new configuration consisting of the specifications of a given currency denomination whenever the RBI releases new notes. Mr Rambabu said that the process to configure the ATMs might take half-a-day to one day. “The RBI directed the closure of all ATMs on November 9 after Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered demonetisation of high value currency and curbs on withdrawals. Technical teams configured all the ATMs with specifications for the new Rs 2,000 notes. Now, they need to be configured for the Rs 500 notes,” he said. He said that it might take one week for adding the new Rs 500 at ATMs and upgrading specifications in software.