The removal of charges on Automated Teller Machine (ATM) for inter-bank withdrawals would only be possible from the second quarter of next year because enormous works are still required to implement the agreement of the Bankers’ Committee, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can now reveal.
Bankers’ Committee, a regular and compulsory meeting between the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and all the managing directors of commercial banks operating in Nigeria had in November agreed to remove the N100 ATM inter-bank charge.
After the initial jubilation that greeted the removal of the charges, various reasons have been advanced by both banks and switching companies why the implementation would not be effected immediately.
Image-makers of banks under the aegis Association of Corporate Affairs Managers of Banks (ACAMB) said that the banks would strive to remove impediments towards the scrapping of the charge.
Mr. Tunde Sofowora, president, ACAMB said that “The rough edges will be smoothened in a few days and customers will enjoy this,” new freedom of using ATM charge.”
He urged customers to be patient to allow banks to work out modalities with third party service providers on implementing the scrapping.
Elsewhere, Ugo Okoroafor, director, Corporate Affairs, CBN said the apex bank would continue to remind the banks to honour their decision and encourage them to abide by it in the interest of the customers.
He said that the directive was not directly from the CBN but “they thought it wise to scrap the charges.”
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered however that the Bankers’ committee has just constituted a smaller committee that will work out the modalities for the implementation of the removal of the ATM charges.
The committee has just settled down to work and this forecloses any hope of implementing the removal of the charges this year.
The committee is expected to work out how to pay for charges accruing to switching companies which are not members of the Bankers’ committee as well as other charges involved in the process of such transactions.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek also gathered that going by the scope of work that the committee has been saddled with ,it is expected to conclude its work by the end of first quarter of 2013, while the full implementation will commence by second quarter when it must have been approved.
Inter-bank transactions on the ATM cost the cardholder making the withdrawal N100 per transactions, while intra-bank withdrawals are not charged by some banks.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek investigations revealed that the N100 charge for the inter-bank withdrawals from the machine is shared among three parties in the transactions which included, the bank that issued the card, the bank that owns the ATM both shares N65 while the switching company that provided the platform that coordinated the handshake gets N35.
The major obstacle to the implementation of this directive, it was learnt is how the pay switching companies that provided the platform upon which the transaction was carried out.
It would be recalled Bisi Onasanya, managing director, First Bank, who was flanked by Agnes Olatokunbo, CBN Director of Banking Supervision, Emeka Emua, Group Managing Director, Union Bank and Shehu Mohammed, Acting Managing Director of Keystone Bank, had said the bankers agreed to start bearing the N100 cost rather than leaving it for customers to pay.
He said the committee would schedule subsequent meetings and work out modalities that will make commercial banks bear the cost, adding that the decision was in line with global best practice.