Victory for the Mail as ATM cuts put on hold
THOUSANDS of free-to-use cash machines could be saved after Britain’s largest ATM operator agreed to put its cost- cutting plan on hold yesterday.
The announcement is a victory for the Daily Mail, which has campaigned for free ATMS to be protected, and should ensure easy access to cash for many rural communities.
LINK, which oversees the country’s network of 70,000 free ATMS, had planned to slash the fee banks pay each other when one of their customers withdraws cash from a rival’s machine.
This fee would have fallen from 25p per withdrawal to 20p in a series of moves over four years. But MPs and campaigners warned that the changes would make ATMS less profitable, leading to closures in isolated communities or the introduction of withdrawal fees.
Yesterday, LINK backed down, announcing that it would not go through with all of its planned cuts. These cuts do not apply to free-touse machines that are one kilometre (0.6 miles) or more from the next ATM.
The so-called ATM interchange fee was cut from 25p to 23.75p on July 1. The next reduction, from 23.75p to 22.5p, is planned for January next year and will go ahead. But yesterday’s announcement means the third cut – to 21.25p in January 2020 – has been cancelled.
The fourth reduction, taking the fees down to 20p, is now on hold, pending a review.
The U-turn will be welcomed by residents in remote or rural areas, where less profitable ATMS would have been most at risk of closure.
Ged Killen, Labour MP for Ruther- glen and Hamilton West in Scotland, who has campaigned on the issue, welcomed the decision but said LINK must put all of its planned cuts on hold. ‘We are moving towards a cashless society,’ he said. ‘However, different parts of the country are moving at different paces, with cash remaining a significant means of transaction in suburban and rural areas.
‘My worry is that as we move towards a cashless society we will get there by cutting off rural and suburban communities while cities adapt quicker to new payment methods. To protect access to cash we need to take stock and examine how our communities use cash. LINK should have done this before they started the cuts to the ATM network and they need to do it now before they cause irreversible damage.’
ATM machines have already been vanishing at an alarming rate. about 500 machines are closing every month, according to LINK’s figures.
at the same time bank branches are closing. Last year, Lloyds and RBS shut 439 outlets between them and they are axing at least 519 more this year. Last month, trade body the ATM Industry association warned that Britain’s network of free cash machines was on a ‘path to disaster’. It said as many as 25,000 to 30,000 ATMS were likely to be removed over the next few years.
Mike Cherry, of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: ‘It’s good that LINK is starting to see the light on this. a full review of the cash machine network is needed before even more damage is done.’
a Payments Systems Regulator spokesman said: ‘We will continue to monitor the outcome of LINK’s decisions and make sure that it keeps its commitment to maintain the current spread of ATMS.’
LINK chief executive John Howells said it was committed to maintaining the UK’s ‘extensive coverage’ of free- to- use cash machines but added that due to declining use it would ‘ adjust interchange to maintain coverage in line with our commitments to the public and to our participants’.
Cashpoints vanishing from our high streets From the Mail, June 29