'Daylight robbery' - Fomca reacts to banks reinstating RM1 fee

The Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (Fomca) has decried the upcoming reinstatement of the RM1 fee for interbank ATM withdrawals as unreasonable.

“Fomca calls it daylight robbery by the bank.

“People are suffering, and they want to do all this. They must educate the people to do online bank transfers. A lot of people are not aware of online bank transfers,” said Fomca vice-president K Koris Atan.

He explained that many who still rely on cash transactions via ATMs are senior citizens or people living in rural areas.

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Reinstating the RM1 fee would only make the poor poorer amid the current economic pressures.

In April last year, the government had announced that the RM1 per transaction fee for interbank ATM withdrawals facilitated through the Malaysian Electronic Payment System (MEPS) system would be waived. The waiver came into effect on April 6.

Some banks had already waived the fee before the announcement was made.

This allowed account holders to make cash withdrawals from any ATM in the country without incurring the fee, rather than having to use their own banks’ ATMs to avoid the fee.

Unpopular move

The waiver came amid the movement control order restrictions that were in force at the time to curb the spread of Covid-19 and was only meant to last for the duration of the MCO.

It was recently reported that several banks including CIMB, Maybank, Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd, RHB Bank, and Citibank have indicated that the charge would be reimposed beginning Feb 1 next year.

Apart from Fomca, PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution had also objected to the plan and has urged Finance Minister Zafrul Abdul Aziz to direct banks not to reimpose the fee.

He said on Wednesday that the move was inappropriate and unpopular with the people, particularly since banks have reaped large profits during the pandemic. -  Mkini