Banks to be forced to keep ATMs (and smaller notes)
Rural communities to benefit from continued access to cash
BANKS will be forced to keep cash flowing in rural communities they had abandoned.
Finance Minister Michael McGrath has acknowledged cash is still king for many people despite the move towards digital banking.
The closure of bank branches across the country as part of increased profiteering has become a major rural issue over the past decade.
But under Mr McGrath’s Access to Cash Bill, banks will be obliged to keep ATM services in small towns. The new legislation will also require the lenders to ensure cash machines will have smaller denomination notes.
Mr McGrath told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘While the role of cash in the economy is diminishing, many people still prefer availing of cash in their day-to-day activities, and their preference must be respected.’ The Fianna Fáil TD said his new legislation will, ‘for the first time place an obligation on the banking sector to maintain access to cash and crucially for businesses, cash lodgement services.’
He added: ‘In addition to maintaining the cash infrastructure at December 2022 levels, it is equally important that these facilities operate efficiently and in a manner that serves the citizens’ needs.
‘There is little benefit to citizens in implementing a framework for access to cash if the machines don’t work.’
He also warned banks that they need to stock their ATMs with €10 and €20 notes.
‘We must remember the person who may not have €50 in their current account and is waiting for payday at the end of the week or to receive their next social welfare payment.’
Mr McGrath’s Bill will also force independent ATM operators to register with the Central Bank of Ireland.
The minister said this ‘will enable the
Central Bank to impose requirements on ATM operators such as service standards, hours of operations, maximum downtimes and denomination stocking’.
Mr McGrath’s initiative follows a directive he issued last September ordering ‘public bodies’ to ‘continue to accept cash’. In response to written questions from Fianna Fáil TD Niamh Smyth earlier this year, Mr McGrath also noted the issue of access to cash is not confined to Ireland. He said at the time: ‘On 28 June 2023, the European Commission published a proposal for a Regulation on Legal Tender, which looks at both access to and acceptance of cash. As regards the acceptance of cash, the European Commission’s draft regulation proposes that cash acceptance should be mandatory across the Euro Area.’
‘The draft regulation proposes that the competent authority in each member state would be required to monitor the acceptance of payments in cash on an annual basis against a set of common indicators to be formulated by the European Commission and to take remedial measures if this monitoring shows that the mandatory acceptance of cash is being undermined.
‘The proposed regulation states that a member state should, if it concludes the level of unilateral exclusions of cash undermine the mandatory acceptance of euro banknotes and coin, take effective and proportionate measures including requiring specific sectors, such as healthcare, supermarkets, post offices and pharmacies, to accept cash.’
‘Many people still prefer cash day-to-day’