Leading Indian banks deploy mobile ATM vans to reach customers during Covid-19 lockdown

10th April 2020
Leading Indian banks deploy mobile ATM vans to reach customers during Covid-19 lockdown
HDFC and ICICI mobile ATMs help customers overcome Covid-19 lockdown problems

Mumbai / Delhi April 10 2020: Within a day of each other leading private sector banks, HDFC and ICICI announced the deployment of mobile Automated Teller Machines
to help customers tide over the problem of reaching fixed ATMs during the Covid-19 lockdown.

On April 8 HDFC Bank  deployed Mobile ATMs in Mumbai & Noida, with plans to extend the service to the rest of the country shortly.The locations for deployment are being identified in consultation with local municipal authorities in respective cities. In Mumbai, the bank is working closely Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on the daily route that the mobile ATM will take to ensure availability of cash. During this period, the Mobile ATM will cover 3-5 stops in a day between 10 am and 5 pm.  
Yesterday ICICI Bank announced that it had deployed  its mobile ATM vans at residential societies in National Capital Region (NCR) and Chennai. The Bank says it will  shortly ply similar mobile ATM vans in Mumbai, Noida and some districts in UP.
Nothing new
As a matter of fact, these are not new  initiatives: mobile ATMs have been around since 2016: in fact the first such bank in a van was launched by the Karnataka Grameen Bank to reach its rural customers, enabling one mobile ATM to visit multiple villages  in a d.
An ICICI mobile ATM  started serving localities in Mumbai even in 2007.   In 2013, HDFC positioned a mobile ATM at the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad. Kerala headquartered Federal Bank has been regularly placing  its mobile ATM in Sabarimala for the convenience of pilgrims visiting the mountain shrine for many years