The number of ATMs has declined marginally to 2.07 lakh in 2017-18 from 2.08 lakh in 2016-17, primarily because of branch rationalisation by a few public sector banks, the Reserve Bank has said in a report.

Similarly, the number of operational on-site ATMs too came down to 1.06 lakh during the year from 1.09 lakh in 2016-17, while that of off-site ATMs increased to 1 lakh from 98,545.

“In 2017-18, the number of ATMs of state-run banks declined to 1.45 lakh from 1.48 lakh in 2016-17,” the RBI said in the Trends & Progress of Banking in 2017-18 report.

However, private sector banks installed more ATMs, taking their total number to 60,145 in 2017-18, up from 58,833 in the previous financial year, the central bank report said.

The report said during the period between April 2018 and August 2018, the number of ATMs (excluding that of small finance banks and payment banks) declined further to 2.04 lakh, which it attributed to the increasing use of electronic means of payments.

During the same period, robust growth was observed in deployment of points-of-sale (PoS) terminals across the country, the report added.