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No, the comparison of feature-function on European ATMs with India is no reflection on other channels in India. In fact, all value added ATM features that make sense on Internet Banking are also available on Internet Banking - and, increasingly Mobile Banking - in India (It's another story how well they're implemented across multiple channels, but I digress). To me, it's more a reflection of giving more choice to the customer: I have more than five ways of accessing Internet at home and at work across laptop, tablet and smartphone, yet I personally prefer paying bills at a KIOSK. One of my billers indulges me, that's it. It's also a reflection of not being shackled by legacy systems that can talk to one other only at midnight. It's human nature to want to know account balance after withdrawing cash from an ATM. Forcing a customer to hop channels to find out their account balance after making an ATM cash withdrawal - just because they live in a country with higher Internet penetration - isn't great channel strategy.

@DavidL:

While the choice of an MOP has cultural underpinnings at some level, my point is related to friction: Because the triumvirate of regulators-banks-vendors is unable to strike the right tradeoff between convenience and security of alternative payments in many countries, several people - including me - are being driven back to cash after having used alternative payment methods for several years, like I pointed out in this post earlier today:

Open Letter To My ePayment Gateway Company

And, going by the reports claiming that the use of cash is rising virtually everywhere in the world, including Europe, this trend is not cultural. After all, wherever they are, people want noncash payments to become like a utility instead of their having to go through so much song and dance about it. That's still a long way off. 

Ah, looks like I'm not the only one who has seen the multibagger potential of BitCoin:

"At Draper University of Heroes, we accept Bitcoin payment of tuition because it is a promising currency with appreciating value. For the time being, we still accept dollars, too,” said Tim Draper, founder and managing director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson and founder of Draper University." 

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130611006142/en/Draper-University-Educational-Institution-Accept-Tuition-Bitcoin

I wouldn't rush to rule out technology as the cause of double-dipping at Marks & Spencer. I've experienced this at two feet: 

The Clear And Present Danger With NFC Payments

While I was a very early adopter of contactless cards, I've started having second thoughts about its security after incidents like these. Besides, if I've to take out a contactless card from my wallet to prevent such incidents, half the convenience of contactless is lost anyway. 

Although it was only yesterday that I waxed eloquently about how banks in Asia have extended the role of ATMs, I totally agree with you about the "audible groan in the queue" whenever someone tries to use an ATM for anything other than cash withdrawal. (As a matter of fact, the bank's own security guard tried to shoo me away when I whipped out my smartphone to scan the QR code displayed on its ATM's screen!). That said, online and mobile channels still have too much friction for a lot of transactions - so much so that cash is even used for a majority of non face-to-face transactions in India (COD has 70% market share in ecommerce)! I see banks striking a practical middleground by restricting ATMs for cash withdrawal and using KIOSKs for bill pay, mobile topup and other transactions (with cash, cheque and cards).

More stories like this will inspire an increasing number of PayPal-harassed merchants to try out BitCoin. Let the flow begin...

All good points. Nowhere is the dichotomy between "want" and "give" more pronounced than in banks' goal for mobile wallet: They want to encourage consumers to use mobile wallets to gather spend data. Whereas, consumers don't want to use mobile wallets - but want to use cash - to track their own spend!  

To be fair to banks in UK, the situation in Continental Europe may not be something to write home about, either. I used to bank with a leading German bank and I remember that its ATM couldn't display the updated account balance after I made a cash withdrawal. Apparently, the ATM and checking account reporting applications talked to each other only once a day at midnight.

Thirded, if such a word exists. I'm sure this is a faithful coverage of what happened during the event but, if this is a display of state-of-art in ATM, many banks in India and Asia Pacific are miles ahead. Event and railway ticket booking, accountless-and-cardless collection of domestic and cross-border remittances, donations to temples, prepaid mobile topup, dispensing cash in multiple currencies in border towns - banks in this region have been doing all this and more for almost 10 years. And, to answer the second Finextra Member's question, the ATMs of one of my banks has a "My Favorite Transaction" feature, which cuts down processing time by 60%.

It's funny how consumers can keep a track of how much they spend only by using cash whereas banks are expecting to find out the same thing by making consumers use mobile wallets!