BSP ‘scrutinizing’ banks’ request for higher ATM transaction fees

Less than 10 banks actually applied for higher automated teller machine (ATM) fees, and the requests are now under evaluation, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Wednesday.

It will take the central 20 days to complete a thorough scrutiny of all the applications.

Vicente de Villa III, officer-in-charge of the central bank’s Financial Technology Subsector, said the evaluation process would take about 20 banking days.

“Granted that this would fall under a ‘very scrutinized situation’, it falls under the complex situation (of the Ease of Doing Business) which falls around 20 banking days,” he said at a press conference.

Under the Ease of Doing Business Act, simple transactions with government agencies should only take three days to assess, seven days for complex transactions, and 20 days for highly technical transactions.

The central bank is now scrutinizing “less than 10” applications to increase ATM fees, Deputy Governor Chuchi Fonacier told reporters in an interview at the central bank headquarters in Manila.

“Yes, meron nang nag-apply ngayon, but we are evaluating.”

The BSP did not name the banks, other than saying that the majority of the applications were seeking higher fees, while one lender has applied to lower its ATM fees. The central bank also did not disclose the amounts the banks are asking for.

De Villa said ATM fees currently average P13, with charges ranging from a low of P11 and a high of P15.

As of end-2018, there were 6,080 universal banks, 562 commercial banks, 2,657 thrift banks, and 3,065 rural and cooperative banks, according to recent data from the central bank.

On July 19, 2019, the central bank released Memorandum 2019-020 which lifted the moratorium on adjusting ATM fees last imposed on September 27, 2013.

Makati City Representative Luis Campos Jr. on Monday filed a House resolution seeking a probe into the “looming increases.”

The labor group Partido Manggagawa branded the proposed increase as “highway robbery.”

“P15 is almost 3% of the daily minimum wage in NCR. Worse it is around 4% of the daily of a minimum wage earner in the Cavite economic zone. Doubling the ATM fee would mean banks taking 6 to 8% of the minimum wage of workers per withdrawal. This is highway robbery,” Rene Magtubo, PM national chair, said in a separate statement.

The central bank has since made it clear that ATM fees will not increase automatically as any adjustment—higher or lower—requires regulatory approval.

“Part of the evaluation process is the banks will have to submit all cost considerations,” De Villa noted, citing hardware, software, electricity, security, and other expenses.

“All of those are broken down but each bank would have a different strategy so each bank (will be reviewed on a case to case basis),” he said.

Among the factors the BSP will consider are ATM machine service performance and network glitches, Fonacier said. —VDS, GMA News