Not just withdraw, you can soon deposit cash using UPI at ATMs, promises RBI

• Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das today announced that users will soon be able to deposit cash using UPI at ATMs.
• Users will also be able to make UPI payments via PPI wallets through third-party apps.
• The governor-led MPC also proposed the launch of a dedicated mobile app for retail investors to access the G-sec market.

Forgot to carry your debit card while visiting the ATM? Don’t worry, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) understands your pain.

On Friday, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das announced that bank account holders will soon be able to deposit money at ATMs using UPI, or Unified Payments Interface. Earlier, in January, RBI had announced that it would allow users to withdraw cash from ATMs using UPI.

At the moment, cash deposits at ATMs can be done via two methods – using debit cards and manually entering the savings account number.

Das announced RBI’s latest Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, where the central bank left the key repo rate unchanged.

Enhancing UPI features

Thanks to UPI’s widespread use, RBI has been expanding its features to include various options from setting autopay instructions for bill payments to creating mandates for IPO applications and more.

After the previous MPC meet in January, RBI governor announced that cash withdrawals would be made possible through UPI ATMs.

“This measure will further enhance customer convenience and make the currency handling process at banks more efficient,” said Das.

In addition to this, RBI also announced that it will allow the use of third-party UPI apps for making UPI payments via prepaid payment instrument (PPI) wallets, like Paytm and GooglePay.

With today’s announcement, the central bank looks keen on slowly but steadily replacing debit cards with UPI. Recent reports suggest that, while UPI usage is growing exponentially, people continue to use Debit Cards, especially for large payments.

New app for G-sec market

RBI’s aim with this is to make it more convenient to use digital payments for small-value transactions.

Lastly, the MPC also proposed the launch of a dedicated mobile app to access the Retail Direct portal. Das believes this will enhance convenience to retail investors and improve the reach of the government securities (G-sec) market.

RBI launched the Retail Direct scheme in 2021 to make it possible for retail and individual investors to participate in the government securities market.

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