New Delhi, October 30: The State Bank of India (SBI) on Tuesday announced to reduce the daily cash withdrawal limit from ATMs for its customers who on Classic or Maestro debit card from tomorrow. The SBI slashed cash withdrawal limit to Rs 20,000 from Rs 40,000 for Classic and Maestro card holders. However, customers with other variants of SBI debit card can continue to enjoy higher daily withdrawal from ATMs.

The SBI had alerted its customers about the move a month ago so that they apply for a higher variant card. “Daily cash withdrawal limit for Classic and Maestro debit cards has been reduced from Rs 40,000 to Rs 20,000 per day with effect from October 31. If you require higher daily cash withdrawal limit, please apply for a higher card variant," the SBI had out the above message on its website. SBI Approves Sale of 4% Stake in Insurance Arm.

“In view of the increase in number of complaints received by the Bank around fraudulent transactions at ATMs, and to encourage digital/cashless transactions, it has been decided to decrease the cash withdrawal limits of Debit Cards," the SBI had said in a statement. Speaking to news agency PTI, SBI Managing Director PK Gupta had said the bank halved the daily cash withdrawal limit to check frauds and promote digital transaction.

“We analysed all the ATM transactions and we found that most of them are less than Rs 20,000 a day. In case of frauds reported to us, we found that in all such cases withdrawals of Rs 40,000 (the maximum) have happened. So, this is basically to protect the customers and secondly, we want that more digital transactions should happen,” Gupta had said. Industry experts see it as an attempt to ease the burden on SBI's cash logistics.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 30, 2018 08:11 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).