Growing opposition to the phasing out of ATMs everywhere: “Isn’t that absurd?” | Money

The four major banks – Belfius, BNP Paribas Fortis, ING and KBC – have jointly set up the ‘Batopin project’. The aim of this project is to merge the management of ATMs and to provide neutral ATMs distributed throughout the territory. But Batopin has to do his homework again, say the three organizations.

According to Financité, a non-profit organization that strives for more financial inclusion, consumer organization Test Aankoop and elderly organization Okra, Batopin is associated with a drastic reduction in the number of ATMs.
“The project claims to be efficient by better distributing ATMs across the territory. For Financité, Test Aankoop and Okra, the main consequence is that many citizens no longer have access to an ATM,” it sounds.

In addition to physical accessibility, the organizations are also concerned about the fees that banks may charge for cash withdrawals at Batopin ATMs.

“Last year we already denounced that KBC is phasing out its own ATMs on the one hand and on the other hand decides to regard Batopin’s ATMs as external to its network, which means that withdrawing money from these ATMs is de facto affordable (0.5 euros) for part of its customers. customers,” says Simon November, spokesman for Test Aankoop. “Meanwhile, CBC has followed suit and charges some of its customers 0.2 euros per cash withdrawal at a Batopin ATM. This is simply unacceptable to us.”

The party Vooruit supports the call of the organizations. The Batopin project, which provides for a universal banking service, is “much too noncommittal”, says federal party leader Melissa Depraetere.

“We see that banks do not comply with this. The result: fewer and fewer counters, fewer bank branches and fewer ATMs,” says Depraetere. “It is becoming more difficult to access basic services such as account statements and cash. Isn’t that absurd?”

In concrete terms, a “minimum range of services” must be provided in each municipality or sub-municipality, says Depraetere, who is also submitting a bill. “If it does not work out with an agreement, the Minister of the Economy Pierre-Yves Dermagne (PS) must legislate it,” she says. Dermagne indicated last week that the Belgian competition authority is conducting an investigation into Batopin. The PS deputy prime minister has previously been critical of the plans of the four major banks.