SBI announces OTP-based night-time ATM cash withdrawals from January

Mumbai: Public sector state-run State Bank of India (SBI) will launch an one-time password (OTP)-based ATM cash withdrawal facility from January 1, 2020, as an overnight service (8 p.m.-8 a.m.) which signifies that while withdrawing cash, the customer will receive an OTP on the mobile number registered with the bank.

The OTP-based withdrawal is applicable only to withdrawals from SBI ATMs.

"With a view to minimize the number of unauthorized transactions happening on ATMs, State Bank of India announced the launch of OTP Based ATM Withdrawal for transactions above 10,000/- between 8 P.M. to 8 A.M.," it said.

"With the introduction of its OTP-based Cash Withdrawal Facility, State Bank ATMs have added another layer of security for cash withdrawals. OTP will be received on the customer's mobile number registered with the Bank."

"The OTP is a system-generated numeric string of characters that authenticates the user for a single transaction. This additional factor of authentication will protect State Bank card holders from unauthorized ATM cash withdrawals", the bank said in a Facebook post.

It also said the facility will not require any major change in the current process to withdraw cash from State Bank ATMs.

However, this facility will not be available for transactions where a State Bank card holder withdraws cash from another bank's ATM, because this functionality has not been developed in the National Financial Switch (NFS).

As per this process, once the cardholder enters the withdrawal amount, the ATM screen displays the OTP fields. The customer has to then enter the OTP received on the mobile number registered with the bank for getting the cash.

This will safeguard the SBI customers against the risk of unauthorized ATM transactions using skimmed or cloned cards, State Bank said.

More banks are likely to follow suit as fraudulent withdrawals are on the rise using cloned ATM cards. Currently, banks alert and send SMSs to customers when they withdraw from ATMs.

"Introducing the OTP-based cash withdrawal system to help protect you from unauthorized transactions at ATMs. This new safeguard system will be applicable from 1st Jan, 2020 across all SBI ATMs", the bank tweeted.