Aussies want to limit ATM fees

CANBERRA, Australia -- The Australian parliament wants to limit the fees charged by banks on ATM transactions.

Grant Chapman, chairman of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Subcommittees, said banks have not done a good job of informing customers of fees on electronic transactions at ATMs. He said customers in Australia pay up to $2 to use another bank's ATM.

However, the chief executive of the Australian Bankers' Association, David Bell, said the disclosure of fees on ATM screens would be too costly for banks to implement, according to The Age, an Australian news service.

A parliamentary inquiry into the fee issue concluded that banks are earning unreasonable profits from the transaction fees and recommended lowering "foreign" fees from $2 to 50 cents. It also wants to force banks to display a warning notice so that customers know the amaount of the fee they are being charged for a transaction.

Bell said pricing controls would be a backward step and damaging to the country's economic reputation.