Union finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee gave a nod to scheduled commercial banks for setting up off-site ATMs without prior approval from the regulator -Reserve Bank of India, but subjected to reporting of the initiative taken.

The announcement is a reiteration of RBI's announcement in its annual policy for installation of offsite ATMs.

Revealing expansion plans, Ananthakrishna, Chairman, Karnataka Bank, said, "We have tie up with other banks through the Cash Tree network and will think of spreading our own bank ATM network to non-ATM areas."

J M Garg, Chairman and Managing Director of Corporation Bank, said, "Banks, including foreign banks can now set up ATMs for free."

The bank plans to set up more than 100 ATMs during this financial year.

Garg has also indicated that bank plans to take location advantage and set up ATM at places where other banks do not have ATMs to increase transactions-based revenue. The bank is also working to outsource its ATM services to third part vendors where other corporates will be asked to set up ATMs on behalf of the bank.

The move will enable the bank in saving initial set up cost which is around Rs 9 lakh for an on-site ATM. In case of off-site ATMs, the rental cost entails perpetually in addition to the fixed initial costs and running costs. "Their location is important and such ATMs should register at least 150 transactions each day for it to be viable for those setting it up," Garg explained.

Recently, Yes bank entered in a MOU with First Data Corporation, to set up 3000 ATMs by 2015.