A customer uses his card to withdraw money from an ATM (Reuters)

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has reportedly urged banks to make cash deposits at branches and automated teller machines (ATMs) interoperable, according to The Economic Times sources.

All major public and private banks have been asked to comply, a banker told the paper.

NPCI believes using the National Financial Switch (NFS) to facilitate the service would reduce the cost of currency handling for the banking system and cut costs involved in replenishing ATMs as well, four sources told the paper.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.

Once in place, the system would enable customers to deposit cash at any ATM enabled with deposit facilities, also known as cash-deposit machines, or cash recyclers; regardless of which bank the ATM belongs to.

This is not entirely an alien concept. As many as 14 banks, including Union Bank, Canara Bank and Andhra Bank already provide the service. NPCI estimates that around 30,000 ATMs may be brought live on the Interoperable Cash Deposit network without significant hardware upgrades, another source said.

The interchange processing charge is fixed at Rs 25 for deposits below Rs 10,000 and Rs 50 for deposits above Rs 10,000, the ET source added.

But, banks have concerns about counterfeit currency deposits via ATMs, the banker said, adding that widespread adoption would be seen after a “thorough reconciliation framework”.

NPCI did not respond to ET’s queries.