The Canadian Bankers Association is calling a proposal by NDP leader Jack Layton to eliminate ABM fees anti-consumer and anti-competitive. According to the banks, they make significant investments in their own ABM networks to meet the needs of their customers. They allow non-customers to get cash from their machines but it is done as a convenience. And a fee is charged so that bank’s customers are not subsidizing the use of those machines by customers of other banks.

“It’s like saying to clients of a gym; we’re going to let customers of other gyms in to use the weight room. We’re not going to charge them, and you’ll be subsidizing their use of it,” said Mr. Protti.

Convenience fees are just that – a small fee charged to consumers who want to benefit from the convenience of using an ABM when and where they want to. It’s the consumer’s choice and every time they do a transaction at a machine not owned by their bank, they are given the option of paying the fee or cancelling the transaction. It is very transparent. Banks also compete with private cash machine operators to put machines in locations where people may want cash, such as convenience stores, airports and casinos. Business owners may charge the ABM owner to rent the space and may receive part of the transaction fees charged by independent operators, which are typically higher than what a bank would charge. As a result, consumers pay more to use these machines.
Well Mr. Protti, it’s not like that at all, because if it were, then your Gym wouldn’t exist. Think about it, if a Gym was a bank then the following would apply: people would all inherently need to be Gym goers (u see in the Utopian world everyone works out). Because it’s an inherent need, someone needs to ‘hold’ all the Gym equipment that people have acquired on their own. So agree to house their equipment for a fee, but you’re so smart, Mr. Protti, that you charge all other clients who come to work out in your Gym a fee to use the equipment that’s not even yours! Not only that, when someone comes in, despite having to pay fees for you to hold their Gym equipment, pay MORE fees to use someone else’s Gym equipment (that of course you’re charging seperate fee to that particular equipiment’s owner).

At this point, nobody cares if people move to another Gym because your freely exchange Gym equipment every night with other Gym’s. So really, somebody’s Gym equipment has in fact been at all of the Gym’s in the country, so all Gym’s are pretty much the same other than that first fee….

OK, so maybe not, but you get the idea, nobody really cares what big banks think anymore. They proft BILLIONS of dollars off of hard working Canadians and put very little back. (8 million bucks to be a CEO of a bank, wow.) Although Jack’s comments are just blind political rhetoric, the sheer size of the banks ensure few Canadians shed a tear when they have to give up a few million bucks to run ABM’s free.

More discussion and news in the forum.

[tags]abm fees, jack layton abm, atm fees canada, removing abm fees[/tags]