Senator Grace Poe on Thursday vowed to immediately look into the plan to increase the fees for automated teller machine transactions, saying it would further burden the hard-up Filipino workers.
Poe, chairman of the Committee on Banks, Financial Institutions and Currencies, said the panel is prepared to conduct a public hearing on the matter upon referral of measures to the committee, including Senate Resolution No. 96, which she filed.
“The interest on savings is small and yet, the deductions on balance inquiry up to withdrawal is big,” Poe said.
Meanwhile, Senator Lito Lapid called on the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to consider the plight of ordinary workers whose salaries would be affected by higher ATM fees as requested by banks.
He said the Central bank should not further burden the public at large, particularly the workers. He added that the increase could dissuade people from putting their money in banks.
“How can we still convince many Filipinos to put their money in banks if we will increase fees for simply withdrawing their money?” asked Lapid.
Poe said it would appear that Filipino depositors are just lending money to the bank when they are issued ATM cards.
“If we are withdrawing, we are just getting what is ours. Why the big deductions for every transaction,” said Poe.
According to reports, several banks have applied for higher ATM fees of between 36% to 50% after the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas lifted the moratorium on ATM fee increases.
But Poe said that regardless of the amount, an increase in bank charge is “disadvantageous to an estimated 4.1 million minimum-wage earners who would need to carry the burden of these fees as many of them receive their salaries through ATM cards and withdraw from these machines at least twice a month.”
‘The practice of imposing hefty bank fees, including ATM charges is financially disadvantageous to our country’s more than 58 million ATM cardholders,” she said.
Currently, bank charges range from P10 to P15 for interbank withdrawals and P2 for interbank balance inquiry.
Poe said she wants to know how much banks collect from these charges and why the customers are being made to shoulder the cost of what should be part of the banks’ services.
She said she would also ask the BSP about its next course of action after the moratorium on ATM fees lapsed.
