The RBI's decision to make an interoperable card-less cash withdrawal facility available at all ATMs through UPI is a celebrated move. Currently, both online and offline payments can be made through UPI, but cash withdrawals are limited to automated teller machines (ATMs), a gap that the regulator wants to fill. At present, cardless cash withdrawal through ATMs is limited only to a few banks. RBI intends to allow the use of UPI to make this feature more accessible and bring an on-board large section of people in the digital journey. Card-less facility is currently operational on most ATMs but is confined to the bank's own customers. With this move, the facility will now become interoperable as it is done via UPI. Now any customer of any bank can use a card-less facility across any ATM via UPI. Until now, only existing customers of some banks could withdraw cash without a card at their own bank’s ATM network. So, if you are a customer of, say, the State Bank of India and want to make a cardless withdrawal, you can do so only at SBI’s ATM. If it’s not located in your vicinity, you have to make the trip to the nearest SBI ATM. Once interoperability is implemented, however, you will be able to withdraw cash from any other bank’s ATM in your location, using the UPI facility.

The growing popularity, adoption and also the ease-of-use that UPI facilities could have prompted this move. “As the adoption and popularity of UPI grows, the RBI is attempting to make it a more versatile payment option. The announcement opens the door for interoperability for cardless withdrawal across all ATMs of all banks. This will enable ease of transaction and further strengthen UPI as an all-round payment option. This move will be highly favoured by youngsters, who use their mobile phones to make all digital payments using UPI instead of a debit card. Now, they can also withdraw cash using their mobile phone via UPI. This is a convenient move for all the youngsters who don’t.