All bank charges through Greece’s inter-banking system DIAS will be zeroed and there will be a national cap of 1.5 euros for other charges, Finance Minister, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, announced on Monday.
The political intervention comes amid uproar caused by the Piraeus Bank that sold its ATMs to a 3rd party provider, the private firm Cashflex, thus charging its own customers a fee when they withdraw cash or check their account balance.
Speaking to the Parliament, Pierrakakis spoke about “charges that are rightly characterized as unjustified,” adding that “what happened after the sale of ATM machines by a bank to a company – a 3rd party provider that imposes charges on the bank’s customers is an unacceptable situation by the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Finance. From the first moment we expressed our disagreement and disagreement means action.”
The Finance Minister stressed that he will proceed to an amendment that foresees among others:
1. In principle, it is true that for a bank, customers face zero charges and we must institutionalize this.
2. Bank charges between themselves through the DIAS system still charge up to 1.5 euros today. These charges will be zeroed.
3. A national ceiling of 1.5 euros will be introduced for any other charge. Another charge is, for example, the charge of a third-party provider or the charge of a Greek bank to a foreign bank.
4. In any connection between a bank and a third-party provider, the third-party provider will treat the bank’s customers as if they were the bank itself. That is, it will have zero charges.
5. In municipal communities that have one ATM and the zero charge already applies, the zero charge is extended to third-party providers.
6 The balance inquiry will also be free of charge for third-party providers.
7. For transfers, the 0.5 euro charge that applies to banks will also apply to third-party providers.
It is clear that the intervention is deeply political, with a social dimension. Proof that the government is acting for the benefit of society, minister Pierrakakis underlined.
He promised to integrate the amendment into the Customs Bill scheduled to be voted at the Parliament on Thursday, July 24, 2025.
The risk now is that ATM’s will start reducing in numbers, the government should consider subsidizing this in some way as an essential service or the risk is that many ATMs will start disappearing.
We should remember that it is in the government’s interests to have us cashless, so other than ‘words’ I don’t think they will do anything about it.
ATMS have already disappeared in their majority since years. We in a south suburb find one in a radius of 4 km. We used to have 1 in 100m distance & and another 2 in 500 m. Now… NADA!
We used to have two banks in my village on Crete. Both closed down some time ago BUT, to be fair, both have maintained their ATMs in the same location. Both banks are part of the cooperative group so it was always possible to use either for withdrawals with no charge. I have no idea how long this will continue.