The National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS) has said that the reintroduction of N65 for transaction on ATMs by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is “exploitative.”
Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, President of NATCOMS said that there was no reasonable justification for the apex bank, CBN to have reintroduced the charge, which will be paid by customers that use ATMs of banks other than the one that issued cards to them.
NATCOMS believes that CBN has abandoned its regulatory responsibilities and is taking sides with the banks to exploit customers through the policy.
‘’The N65 ATM withdrawal charge is punitive, excessive profit-driven, exploitative and totally unacceptable as well as being a terrible welcome gift from the new Central Bank Governor to consumers of banking services in Nigeria”, according to Ogunbanjo.
‘’This ATM charge regimen is not in line with international best practices and is definitely not in the interest of consumers of banking services in Nigeria’’ he adds.
As a means of justifying the directive CBN says the fee was shared between the ATM acquirers, card issuers and switches. Banks, as the issuers of the ATM cards, were required to waive the N35 issuer’s fee, while bearing the cost of N65 each time their customers used another banks’ ATM.
According to the nation’s apex bank, any bank customer that uses another banks’ ATM more than three times in a month will be charged N65 beginning from September 1, meaning that the first three transactions by a card holder using ATMs of banks other than theirs would be free, as the charge for such transactions would be paid for by the issuing bank.
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