LAHORE: Most of the automated teller machines (ATMs) of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) in Lahore have stopped dispensing cash since Saturday noon.

While a vice-president (VP) of the bank blamed the poor service of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) and Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) for the issue, a number of the bank’s online money supply service users said the NBP’s ATMs always ‘develop problems’ during the first five days of every month, weekends and on more than one closed holidays.

Only the ATM at NBP’s Wahdat Road branch was dispensing cash till Saturday noon while the ones at Shadman Chowk (Jail Road), Davis Road, Main Boulevard Gulberg,Baghbanbura, Moon Market of Iqbal Town and Model Town branches would inform the user his or her account number was not correct or accessible, some would get information about their balance while the lucky ones would get between Rs2,000 and Rs5,000 after two or three attempts.

In normal cases, an NBP account holder can withdraw a maximum of just Rs20,000 in 24 hours from any ATM of the bank.

The ATMs at Wapda House branch remains inaccessible after working hours because of `security reasons.’ A vice-president of the bank at its main branch told this reporter the ATMs were dependent on the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) and Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) for connectivity.

“We have got high-tech machines installed in a country where the matters like inadequate supply of electricity create problems. When we adjust inadequate electricity supply through the uninterrupted power supply (UPS) backup or our own generators, the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) creates problems through line disturbance and ATMs stop working,” said the VP who wished not to be named.

Complaints have been piling up over the years about poor online banking services which show no signs of improvement.

The customers using the ATMs have been facing many issues, including misreporting about the cash, deduction of cash during a transaction without delivery to the customer, and frequent ‘link down’, ‘ATM is out of order’ or ‘your bank failed to respond’ messages.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had, in July last year, directed all the commercial banks to improve the poorly managed ATM services across the country.

Through a circular, the SBP had instructed the banks to ensure round-theclock availability, consistent monitoring of ATMs and mobilisation of maximum resources to timely resolve issues like ‘out of cash’, hardware, software problems, power outages and connectivity glitches.