The number of bank-owned and fee-free automatic teller machines has more than halved in the past seven years, replaced with privately operated devices that slug users up to $4 per transaction.
While major financial institutions rapidly shutter branches and mothball ATMs, major corporations and small-time investors alike are flocking to fill the void – and cash in.
Professor Steve Worthington from Swinburne University said banks, particularly the big four, have become “obsessed with their cost-to-income ratios”.
“Anything they can do to reduce their costs will improve the gap between their outgoings and their incomings, hence improving their profitability,” Professor Worthington said.
“One of the biggest costs for banks and other financial institutions is running branches, in terms of the premises themselves and the personnel in them. That’s why there have been a lot of branch closures.
“And very often, ATMs operated by major banks are located in their branches, so when they close a branch, they remove an ATM.”
Plummeting numbers
Since June 2017, banks have collectively closed 2100 of their branches, data from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority shows, with 424 shutting in the 12 months to June 2023 alone.
On top of those ATM removals, another major factor in bank-owned machines becoming an endangered species is the industry wide decision in 2017 to stop charming customers of other financial institutions a $2 fee to withdraw cash.
At the time, it was heralded by the government as a major win for consumers, but in reality it marked the beginning of the end of fee-free and convenient access to cash.
When that decision was made, there were 13,814 bank-owned ATMs right across Australia, but by June 2023, that number had more than halved to 5693.
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