The Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) on Wednesday said the adoption of the ATM pricing method using acquirer-based fee principle will offer more competitive rates.

“We are appreciative of the BSP’s (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) move to adopt this pricing philosophy that is market driven and customer-centered,” a statement quoting BAP managing director, Benjamin Castillo, said. “This policy promotes competition and efficiency in the banks' effort to deliver better services to the banking public.”

The BSP is expected to issue its own statement within the day. The BSP lifted the September 2013 ban on ATM fee increase in 2019.

In the meantime, the BAP is assuring the banking public that ATM card holders who will only transact with their own banking networks will not pay any amount for the service. 

“Cardholders who choose to transact using an ATM of another bank will still have an option to proceed or not to proceed with his transaction mindful of the ATM fee that will be charged,” said Castillo. “Same as before, no fee will be charged if the cardholder will use the ATM terminal of his bank.”    

In 2013, before the moratorium was imposed, the country’s top banks have all indicated their intention to raise ATM fees. Since the lifting of the moratorium, major banks have applied for ATM fee increase with the BSP. During the pandemic lockdown, the use of ATMs have declined since with social distancing and limited movement, people were forced to go online or mobile for payment transactions. Still, banks pursued their application to raise ATM fees.

Before setting an acquirer-based charging model for the imposition of ATM, banks practice the issuer-based charging method.

The BSP’s rationale for adopting an acquirer-based charging method is that these acquirers have a significant role in the setting of fees, which is justifiable considering that off-us transaction costs are substantially incurred by them, such as deployment and maintenance of terminals, cash servicing, ATM monitoring, among others. In short, this method means the amount to be paid by ATM users will depend on the ATM terminal. The acquiring bank will set the fees while the issuing bank can also charge a separate fee so long as this additional fee is properly disclosed to the ATM user.