Labor and Economy Minister Pierre-Yves Dermagne (PS) and Secretary of State for Consumers Alexia Bertrand (Open VLD) are in discussions with the banking sector to better spread ATMs. If that consultation does not give any results, a legal obligation will be set up, the House was told on Thursday.
‘It’s simple: everyone has to be able to get their money’s worth. You may not have to drive miles for this. I walk two tracks. Either the industry cooperates and we make good deals to get better coverage. Or the industry won’t cooperate and we’ll force them to do it by law. The choice is theirs. After my first contacts with the sector, I have the impression that there is a willingness to cooperate constructively,’ said State Secretary Bertrand.
On Thursday she and Dermagne received questions in the House from Melissa Depraetere (Vooruit), Leen Dierick (CD&V), Steven De Vuyst (PVDA), Tania De Jonge (Open VLD), Lesli Leoni (PS) and Nicolas Parent (Ecolo-Groen ) on the shortage of ATMs.
Several municipalities in our country no longer have an ATM, which means that residents who do not yet use digital banking, but also, for example, self-employed people who want to secure their income at the end of the day, sometimes have to travel miles to do it.
The four largest banks have long been working on a plan to make 95 percent of the population a neutral ATM for banks available within a radius of five kilometres. But this is not enough, the MPs believed.
Dermagne and Bertrand agreed on Thursday that everyone should be able to access their money quickly and easily. They therefore want to mandate accessibility to ATMs, preferably through consultation with industry, but also through legal channels if necessary.
Today, there are no legal regulations or agreements with the industry that determine the minimum number of ATMs within a region and distribution. Bertrand claims to look at population density, but in any case, according to her, every municipality should have a vending machine.
