Punjab National Bank (PNB) customers may not be able to withdraw cash from some ATMs from 1 February 2021. PNB has already informed its customers that it will be restricting financial and non-financial transactions from Non-EMV ATM machines from 1 February 2021. The public sector bank has taken this decision to prevent PNB accountholders from fraudulent ATM activities.
“To protect our esteemed customers from fraudulent ATM activities, PNB will be restricting transactions (financial & non-financial) from Non-EMV ATM machines from 01.02.2021. Go Digital, Stay Safe!”PNB had said in a tweet on 14 January.
EMV is an acronym for Europay Mastercard and Visa, who developed this technology.
What are non-EMV ATMs
The non-EMV ATMs are those in which the card is not used during the transaction. In this machine, the data is read through a magnetic strip and for a few seconds, one’s debit card gets locked.
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Debit and credit cards without the EMV chip have stopped working from 1 January 2019.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) favoured EMV chip cards for digital transactions due to the additional security which makes the card immune to ATM scams like phishing. Most of the public and private sector banks have upgraded their ATMs to accept EMV chip cards.
What are EMV ATMs
In case of an EMV ATM, on inserting a debit card, the ATM machine secures the card in place till the money is withdrawn. This is to read the chip on it during the course of the transaction, similar to card readers at places of business.
Punjab National Bank has announced that it has changed the old IFSC-MICR Code and these will stop working from 31 March 2021. “All transactions with current IFSC/MICR code will be honoured till March 31, 2021. Post-March 31, 2021, you will need to ensure for NEFT and RTGS services, you shall use the new IFSC/MICR code only. ” the bank informed on its website.
PNB OTP-based ATM cash withdrawal facility
In December last year, PNB introduced an OTP-based facility for cash withdrawal. In order to withdraw cash of 10,000 and above between 8 am to 8 pm, the PNB account holders will need an OTP now. So, they need to carry their mobile as the OTP will be received on the registered mobile only. Country’s top lender State Bank of India (SBI) was the first bank to introduce this facility.
On 1 April 2020, the government merged PNB, Oriental Bank of Commerce, and the United Bank of India. After the merger at PNB, all branches of United Bank of India and Oriental Bank of Commerce are now functioning as branches of PNB.
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