As per an exclusive report in one of the leading business dailies, in case the ATMs fail to dispense cash for more than 3 hours, the central bank of the country may levy a penalty on banks. And as per one of the source cited in the report, the circular in this regard has already been sent to commercial lenders. Nonetheless, the report further quoted a senior official from State Bank of India as saying that no such circular has been received by the bank so far.

The problem of ATMs running out of cash is many times not addressed on an immediate basis "due to the lackadaisical attitude of banks". This is despite the fact that banks get an alert on depleting cash in ATMs through the sensors deployed in the teller machines. And the cash crunch at ATMs in rural cities becomes an acute problem as people there in such a situation are forced to go to banking correspondents who charge a higher amount.

In its second bi-monthly monetary policy review meet, the RBI has set up a panel to foresee the entire issue relating to ATM charges. The committee is headed by VG Kannan, Indian Banks' Association (IBA) chief executive officer.

Also, to ensure the security of these automated teller machines, RBI on Friday asked banks to grout their machines to a wall, pillar, or floor latest by end of September except for those deployed in highly secured premises including airports.

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