Canara Bank partners with ACI to launches OTP-based ATM cash withdrawal facility

ACI Worldwide announced that Canara Bank has launched PIN + OTP cash withdrawal through Canara Bank ATMs for Canara Bank cardholders—using ACI’s portfolio of Universal Payments solutions.

With the introduction of its OTP-based cash withdrawal facility, ATMs of the bank will feature an added layer of security for cash withdrawals above Rs 10,000 in a day. One-time password (OTP) is a system-generated numeric string of characters that authenticates the user for a single transaction or login session. This additional factor of authentication will protect the bank's card holders from unauthorized ATM cash withdrawals.

Introduced on 15 August 2019, the OTP-based cash withdrawal system is now active across all Canara Bank ATMs. Canara Bank partnered with ACI to develop capabilities that initiate a request for OTP generation. Using ACI’s UP Retail Payments solution, this system was completed within a one-month period. With the introduction of this facility, there will be no major changes in the process to withdraw cash from the ATMs; however, the facility will not be applicable for transactions when a Canara Bank card holder withdraws from another bank’s ATM.

Once cardholders enter the amount they wish to withdraw, UP Retail Payments automatically verifies the transaction amount and current usage of the cardholder at the backend. If it exceeds the configured OTP limit value of Rs 10,000 in a day, the solution - in real-time - sends an OTP to the cardholder after authenticating the requisite systems, and simultaneously sends a response to the ATM to display the OTP entry screen. This approach safeguards customers against risks while using debit cards for cash withdrawals at ATMs - helping banks to avoid fallback/ skimmed fraud transactions in Canara bank ATMs.

“With the digital payments landscape evolving each day, transactions are vulnerable to fraud, putting customers at increased risk,” said Kaushik Roy, vice president and country leader, South Asia, ACI Worldwide. “Introducing an added layer of security by way of an OTP-based secure mechanism is a precautionary step by Canara Bank to guard against unauthorized transactions. Given the newer methods employed by cyber criminals to commit ATM and debit card-related fraud, this is an innovative solution by Canara Bank to meet the needs of their customers.”