|
ATMs and gaming venues
Proposed bills will add costs and could hurt consumers
Sydney, 12 September, 2008: The Australian Bankers’ Association (ABA) has outlined the consequences of proposals to regulate access to cash.
The ABA is today appearing in front of the Australian Senate’s Community Affairs Committee to provide comments on two proposed Bills:
1) Senator Steve Fielding’s Bill which seeks a impose a $100 per day limit on withdrawals from cash facilities (ATMs and EFTPOS) located in gaming venues; and
2) Senator Nick Xenophon’s Bill which seeks to remove all ATMs and impose restrictions on access to cash from EFTPOS in gaming venues.
The ABA identifies three potential outcomes resulting from the two Bills.
|
Options |
Outcomes |
|
1) Remove ATMs from gaming venues |
This will mean banks have to remove 571 ATMs.
|
|
2) Impose a $100 per day limit on cash facilities
(ATM and EFTPOS) in gaming venues via
the customer’s account
|
This will place upward pressure on foreign ATM fees2 due
to significant technology compliance costs.
This will also likely result in the removal of EFTPOS
from gaming venues, given that current technology
does not enable limiting access at certain merchants
while enabling full access to other merchants.
|
|
3) Impose a $100 per day limit on cash facilities
(ATM and EFTPOS) in gaming venues via these
machines
|
This will place upward pressure on ATM direct charges
(starting March 2009) as it will impose technology compliance
costs on the ATM deployer and ATM acquirer.
|
David Bell, Chief Executive of the ABA, said: “The ABA is concerned that further restrictions on access to cash in gaming venues will transfer costs from the sectors that benefit from gaming venues to banks and ultimately all their customers.”
The ABA notes that this process is happening outside the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) process which has requested that the Productivity Commission update its 1999 research into gambling. COAG, through the Ministerial Council on Gambling, has also started investigations into identifying strategies to help individuals set their limits.
For further information:
Heather Wellard, ABA PR: Phone: 02 8298 0411 Mobile: 0409 830 439
ENDS
[1] The vast majority of ATMs in gaming venues are not operated by banks, but by third party ATM deployers. Less than 1% (57) of ATMs in gaming venues across Australia are bank-branded.
[2] Interchange fees are being removed in March 2009. Imposing ATM withdrawal limits at certain ATMs will partly offset savings from zero interchange, creating upward pressure on foreign ATM fees. |
|
|
|