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Australia's financial industry revisits ATM fee reform

April 7, 2005

The Age:The financial services industry in Australia has been called upon to speed up the process to reform Australia's ATM payment systems.

Customers Ltd., an Australian electronic payments systems company, has called for more progress in ATM fee reform.

Speaking at an ATM conference in Hong Kong, managing director Greg Baker said reform to Australia's ATM fee regime was important and overdue.

Since a study was conducted more than four years ago by the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Baker said, progress on ATM reforms has almost stopped.

He said the study, released in October 2000, had encouraged reform and was critical of current interchange fees.

"The process of reform has been long and thorough and the model developed for the Australian market should deliver optimum outcomes for all interested parties," he said. "It is essential that a nation's payments system infrastructure is efficient to ensure a modern and successful economy."