Release: 26 January 2005

Charge for cash machines ‘back to the bad old days of banking’ says AM

The Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for South Wales West, Peter Black, has attacked the growth in fee-charging cash-dispensers.

Mr. Black was speaking in the light of a Treasury Select Committee investigation into the industry after research from the Nationwide revealed that fee-charging machines comprise 40% of the UK’s 50,000 cash dispensers. Last year, HBOS sold around 800 of its machines to another company who have introduced charges for use to about one third of them already.

“I find it quite extraordinary that some companies have the nerve to charge customers for getting access to their own money,” said Mr. Black. “This is going back to the bad old days of banking. They appear to want the penny and the bun!”

“I am delighted that the Select Committee is taking this matter up, and that organisations like the Consumers’ Association are giving evidence. It is clear that cash machines operators continue to believe that customers exist to be ripped off. What is needed is a code of practice to regulate this state of affairs, and I am delighted to support the calls from the Nationwide Building Society for one to be introduced.”

ENDS