White Label ATMs and Brown Label ATMs

Initially, when the banks introduced the ATM service for their customers, it’s penetration was limited to Tier-I and Tier-II cities only. So, to expand the service to the smaller towns and cities of the country the concept of White Label ATMs and Brown Label ATMs was introduced.

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White Label ATMs

A White Label ATM (WLA) is just like any other regular Automated Teller Machine (ATM) but is set up, owned, and operated by non-banking companies or NBFC (Non-Banking Financial Institutions).

The following are some of the key points to learn about WLAs:

• Although WLAs have all the basic features of standard ATMs, they don’t have a cash acceptance/deposit feature.
• WLAs can be used for cash withdrawals, mini statements, utility bill payments, and PIN changes.
• You can use your ATM-debit cards as well as credit cards at WLAs.
• WLAs can be easily identified by the absence of a bank’s logo on the machine. Instead, you will find the logo of the actual ATM owner on them.
• Failed transactions or any other discrepancies resulting from using WLAs are to be taken up with the ATM card issuing bank and not the WLA owner.

Brown Label ATMs

Brown Label ATMs are a cost-effective solution for the banks as they are based on the cost-sharing principle.

While the hardware of a Brown Label ATM is owned by a third-party, i.e. the service provider, network connectivity and cash management are provided by the sponsor bank. However, overall, the features of Brown Label ATMs are same as those of the standard ATMs.

An interesting thing to learn about Brown Label ATMs is that they have a logo of the sponsor banks on them, unlike WLAs.

The standard ATMs which are owned, run and managed by banks are called Bank-owned ATMs. Thus, for these, the banks have a 100% control. The rest, i.e. WLAs and Brown Label ATMs are just an easy solution to expand the penetrating of their banking services.