Page 47 - Banking Finance September 2020

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b. Implement anti-skimming and whitelisting If the uptime is less than the level as provided by the
solution. SLA, there are penalties imposed by the bank from the
c. Upgrade all the ATMs with supported versions ATM service provider. Therefore, with evolving
of software. Such upgrades shall be during technology, ATM providers will have huge responsibility
phased manner to make ensure that in respect of maintaining uptime level as well as have such controls
in place, which guarantee that the penalties charged
of the prevailing ATMs running on unsupported
by banks are in line with agreed terms& conditions as
versions of software.
per the SLA and these penalties are recovered from
Huge expenditure will have to be incurred to respective vendors or CRAs.
implement the said measures by ATM operators.
This will affect their profitability and visible gain will X Data collection and implementation- Today, data is a
be negligible. But keeping in view of the recent real wealth and it is being said that whoever acquires
security breach in many of the ATMs, and controls the data will have hegemony in the future.
The global movement of data is creating huge prospects
implementation of the above measures is essential.
as well as challenges. But the implementation of systems
X ATM Security- ATM related fraud has become a and such procedures, which capture the data, record
worldwide issue affecting financial institutions along
and maintain it in order to facilitate the flow and
with its customers. Banks need to assess their fraud processing into useful information is an uphill task. The
prevention capabilities to detect gaps needed to be collection of primary or secondary data needs both
filled and to attempt to get one step ahead of the thorough understanding of the information requirement
fraudsters. ATM skimming remains a prime concern.
and the adequate processes, which process such data
Leading vendors have developed anti-skimming devices
into information.
to alleviate the risk due to ATM skimming and to extend
X Wallets and digital payments- The Government is
the lifespan of existing ATMs.
moving fast towards its plan of making the economy
X OS (Operating System) Upgrade- Microsoft is
cashless through digitisation of payments and evolution
contemplating to terminate the support for previous of e-wallets for making various payments. Hence, it can
versions of windows operating systems. Windows 10 is be observed that making payments at POS is increasing
the latest operating system offering various features at a much faster pace as compared to ATM
related to security. Banks have to plan to migrate their transactions.
ATMs since it may require additional cost in terms of
People have started making payments directly by using
money, effort and time.
debit or credit cards rather than withdrawing cash from
X EMV compliant- As EMV (Europay, Mastercard and ATMs and making payments in cash. Various modes such
Visa) proved to mitigate card fraud by card skimming, as netbanking, phone banking, e-wallets, etc., are slowly
many of the cardholders and merchants are adopting growing their operations in India. The comfort of
EMV technology to mitigate the risk. Majority of the operations, as well as benefit of mobility and various
POS terminals have implemented EMV but ATM industry benefits offered by sellers or vendors or government for
adoption of EMV is slightly behind the target. As making payments digitally have started appealing users,
majority of the cards are EMV enabled, financial who till date, have believed in a cash-driven economy.
institutions need to understand that if ATMS are not The RBI, in its master directions for prepaid payment
EMV compliant, they can be held liable for any fraud instruments (PPIs), had proposed the idea of
happening when EMV enabled cardholder does a interoperability among digital wallets, following which
transaction at the ATM. digital wallets present in the ecosystem will be able to
interact or transact with each other. Interoperability
X Cash replenishment and uptime- With augmented
focus on customer enablement, the service level will let a user of one e-wallet to make payment to
agreements (SLAs) between the bank and the ATM another e-wallet. With this customer facilitation will be
service provider or the ATM service provider and the increased due to the ease of making such payments.
CRA (cash replenishment agencies) provide for This poses threat to the ATM industry in the long run.
minimum level of uptime, which should be maintained. X Cryptocurrency- With the concept of cryptocurrency

BANKING FINANCE | SEPTEMBER | 2020 | 47