Following a recent summit, a new taskforce has been set up to improve cash machine transparency and review the impact of fee-charging ATMs in the UK.
The summit, called by economic secretary to the Treasury Ivan Lewis, brought together MPs and representatives of banks, building societies and consumer groups to agree action on the growth of charging machines and how best to protect the consumer interest.
The new taskforce, chaired by UK Treasury Select Committee chairman Rt Hon John McFall and with industry representatives including Nationwide, is to report back to ministers in six months with recommendations for action on cash machine transparency and on the impact of charges on financial inclusion.
Nationwide has welcomed the progress made at the summit, with the company’s head of external affairs Alan Oliver commenting that, we’ve been campaigning for some time for real action to protect the free cash machine network and I welcome the progress made at today’s summit. We will be participating in the taskforce and will continue to press for standardized signage so that consumers can see at a glance whether or not a machine will charge.
Halifax, meanwhile, has reaffirmed its commitment to providing fee free cash machines by announcing that an extra 300 ATMs will be added to its network over the next five years. The company has been lobbying for members of ATM network Link to adopt color-coded signs, namely green for free-to-use machines and red for fee-charging machines.