YES Bank to lessen ATM expansion target

YES Bank, private sector lender has lessened its ATM expansion target as white label ATMs will be set up across the country. The bank wants to focus more on its core business. White label ATMs are those that are owned and operated by non-bank entities. The Reserve Bank of India had issued draft guidelines on setting up these ATMs in February.

At present, the bank has 605 ATM’s and it has decided to reduce the ATM expansion target to 2,000 by 2015 from the 3,000 planned earlier. The operational costs on ATMs are over Rs 60,000 a month so cost for 1,000 ATMs will be more than 150 branches.

The bank plans to expand its branch network to 900 from the current 356, concentrating on Tier I cities, especially in the South, and Tier II and III cities and towns in the North. It is likely to to focus more on the NRI (Non-Resident Indians) customers. YES Bank plans to enter the credit card business in 2014. The bank also plans to open a foreign branch in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) to raise liabilities outside India.