Greens to tackle ATM charges
(5 March 2010 – Australia) The Australian Greens spokesman, Senator Bob Brown, has said that Australia’s major banks should be banned from charging non-customers every time they want to access their own money, as the party plans to tackle trade practice laws over the issue.
The Australian Greens announced today that they will move to amend trade practice laws to ban Australian banks from charging A$2 fees for non-customers using Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs).
It's a regressive private tax and it hits the poorest people hardest; the average Australian spends around A$1000 on bank fees, 20 percent more than in the UK where ATM fees do not exist, Mr Brown highlighted.
The senator argued that Australia's major banks all posted multi-billion dollar profits last year, adding that there is no reason for the banks to charge the approximately A$680 million they made from ATM fees.
The Green party will take legislative action in federal parliament to ban banks from charging these ATM fees.
The A$2 ATM fee is not a fee-for-service and the charge does not reflect the real cost of processing an ATM transaction, which the RBA estimated was about 50 cents in 2000 and which is likely to be even lower now, Mr Brown noted.
The party said that they are not advocating the fee ban for credit unions and building societies, which are generally member owned and not-for-profit, or for independent ATM operators, such as corner shops and clubs.
It's a regressive private tax and it hits the poorest people hardest; the average Australian spends around A$1000 on bank fees, 20 percent more than in the UK where ATM fees do not exist, Mr Brown highlighted.
The senator argued that Australia's major banks all posted multi-billion dollar profits last year, adding that there is no reason for the banks to charge the approximately A$680 million they made from ATM fees.
The Green party will take legislative action in federal parliament to ban banks from charging these ATM fees.
The A$2 ATM fee is not a fee-for-service and the charge does not reflect the real cost of processing an ATM transaction, which the RBA estimated was about 50 cents in 2000 and which is likely to be even lower now, Mr Brown noted.
The party said that they are not advocating the fee ban for credit unions and building societies, which are generally member owned and not-for-profit, or for independent ATM operators, such as corner shops and clubs.
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