The Reserve Bank of India has agreed to the proposal of the banks’ to allow third party to set up ATM networks. At present the ATMs have to be owned and braded by the banks. Once the proposal is implemented, a third party will create and operate the ATM network.

The banks would then just need to be a member of the network and the customers of the respective banks can avail the ATM services with that particular network.

An official at RBI said, “The central bank will issue draft guidelines shortly on third party ATM management. The guidelines will lay down the conditions, revenue sharing methodology and instructions on how to use.”

A banker said, “RBI maintained that ATM business is a banking business and we can’t allow a third party to do banking business.”

They cut in line, get bags checked for free and then get upgraded to first class. Who are these lucky elites? They’re savvy fliers who have obtained what’s called status in their airline’s frequent flier program.

The traditional way to obtain status in a frequent flier program is simple: Just fly every week and wait until your new status card arrives in the mail. Yet, as companies cut their employee travel budget, many have lost their elite status and now must pay baggage fees and wait in lines with everyone else.

If you’re on the verge of losing your elite status or have never enjoyed it in the first place, don’t give up hope. Here’s how to reach and maintain elite status with your airline’s frequent flier program…

Each airline’s program is full of complex terms and conditions that few travelers take the time to understand. For example, Delta

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The largest lender of the country, State Bank of India aims to put as many as 40,000 ATMs all over the country in a bid to increase its presence all over India even further.

All public sector banks are aiming to work together for the installation of white labeled ATMs. White labeled ATMs are those which are not under the ownership of any particular bank but are managed and maintained by an external agency.

SBI owns the maximum number of ATMs in India at present. Presently India has 74,743 ATMs of which 20,084 belong to SBI, reported a survey conducted by Atos Worldline as on March 2011.

In the face of mounting pressure from consumer advocates, customers, legislators, and an angry media, five megabanks have all of a sudden decided that charging people for access to their own money wasn’t such a good idea, after all. The moves by Wells Fargo, Chase, SunTrust, Regions and Bank of America to cancel plans to charge debit card users monthly fees is a clear victory for their customers. However, before you chalk one up for the vocal majorit,y you might want to keep your eyes on your mailbox for announcements of future fees.

It’s unlikely that the mega-banks are simply going to give up efforts to increase their fee-based income. Keep in mind why these same companies - only one week ago - were steaming full- speed ahead with their plans to charge fees for debit card usage. The root cause for the new fees was the cap on debit card swipe income, which is still in place.

Nothing has changed relative to the income they’re going to lose by not being able to charge more than $.21 for a debit card swipe. What has changed is how they’re likely going to get it from us. 

The banks clearly underestimated how consumers were going to react when they found out they were going to get charged for access to their own money. I’m still not sure how that happened considering there are thousands of people camping out this very evening in cities all over the country protesting, among other things, how big banks treat customers. Do they not know that debit card users LOVE their debit cards? I used the word LOVE, people. 

The banks will likely take advantage of this little diversion. They’ve lost this battle but they will not lose the war. An increase in fees (one that’s less offensive) is likely to occur. This will probably include some blending of increased late fees, ATM fees, foreign transaction fees, or some other fee that were less likely to notice. 

This move by the banks is little more than a stay of execution. What it does do for consumers is buy them time to move their business from one bank to another, without the pressure of impending fees.  Moving a checking account is a

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