News Release
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11 November 2005
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RESPONSE TO NATIONWIDE REPORT ON CASH MACHINES
There is no current evidence that free cash machines
are under threat. There are over 32,000 free cash machines
in the UK and 96% of cash withdrawals are free. There has
in fact been a 2% rise in the number of free machines at non-branch
locations over the past year. There has been a small offsetting
fall in the number of machines in bank and building society
branches. The number of charging cash machines has risen.
The vast majority of new charging machines are in locations
that previously had no cash machine.
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ATMs
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Sep-04
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Sep-05
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Difference
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%
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Free Branch
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19,148
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18,777
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- 371
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-1.9%
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Free Remote
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13,315
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13,578
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+ 263
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+2.0%
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Free Total
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32,463
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32,355
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- 108
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-0.3%
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Charging
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20,715
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23,931
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+ 3,216
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+15.5%
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Total
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53,178
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56,286
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+ 3,108
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+5.8%
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Both the Treasury Select Committee and the Government accepted
that charging cash machines are a legitimate business model,
increasing access to cash and helping to sustain small businesses*.
Over the past year LINK and its Members have taken a range
of actions to ensure full transparency of cash machine charges.
Rules on transparency of charges were tightened on 1 July
2005. The amount of any charge must be displayed on the ATM
screen. The customer must confirm acceptance of any charge
before completing a cash withdrawal. LINK is currently surveying
compliance with these rules. Members of LINK have agreed that
penalties will be payable by those found not to be compliant.
When Members considered a proposal on red and green signs
in May 2005, they chose to implement the current rules. Many
banks have already invested considerable sums in labelling
their cash machines as free in a way that is prominent given
their own particular brand colours. LINK and its Members continue
to review the effectiveness of these rules and whether alternative
solutions would be more, or less effective.
LINK publishes on its website information on the number of
free and charging cash machines as well as data on trends
in the number of transactions that are charged. See www.link.co.uk
for details.
(*House of Commons Treasury Committee, Cash Machine Charges,
Fifth Report of Sessions 2004-2005. HC 191 page 56 para3)
Background
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LINK is the UK's national cash machine (ATM) interchange
network and the busiest ATM transaction switch in the
world.
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It deals with up to 225m transactions per month and at
its busiest, it processes almost 1 million transactions
an hour.
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There are over 100 million LINK cards in circulation
from around 38 issuers and over 56,000 ATMs connected
to the network, effectively every ATM in the UK.
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The LINK network is a fundamental part of the UK's payments
infrastructure and cash machines are the most important
method of cash withdrawal in the UK, used by millions
of consumers every week.
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Growth in the number of ATMs, ATM transactions and the
value of cash withdrawn from ATMs is expected to continue.
- ends -
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© LINK Interchange Network Limited
2005. All Rights Reserved.
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