OREANDA-NEWS. April 30, 2009. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) summed up the findings of a survey of credit organizations, carried out to determine the state of competition on the market of banking services related to the operations with cash machines (ATMs), which are provided to the holders of the bank cards issued by other banks, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The subject of the survey was the procedures adopted by credit organizations for informing the holders of the bank cards of other card issuers about the possible commission (its rates) for withdrawing cash from cash machines in Moscow.

One of the reasons for organizing the survey was a petition of a bank card holder who used a cash machine of another bank for withdrawing 500 Rubles and later found that his account was debited a 90 Ruble commission charge. The petitioner complained that the commission was charged by the bank that owns the cash machine. Information about the commission was not provided before the cash machine completed the operation.

The survey shows that the absolute majority of respondents - credit organizations (68%) do not charge a commission from the holders of the bank cards issued by other banks for withdrawing cash.

In their turn, those credit organizations that charge commissions (except one bank) inform the bank card holders directly before the cash-withdrawing operation through cash machines and provide an option to refuse to proceed with the operation if necessary.

At the same time the survey revealed that apart from the credit organization, whose bank machine was used by a credit card holder, a commission can also be charged by the credit organization that issued the bank card. This type of commission was debited from the account of the bank card holder who filed a complaint to FAS Russia.

The amount of this type of commission varies between credit organizations and at the moment typical commission is 1% of the withdrawn sum, but no less than 90 Rubles or US\\$3 or 3EUR. For some banks, however, the minimum commission can reach 300 Rubles for the Ruble account and US10 or 10EUR for a foreign currency account.

Commissions charged for withdrawing cash from the cash machines owned by other banks constitute one of the elements of price competition between credit organizations on the market of banking services related to issuing and servicing of bank cards.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service would like to emphasize that the established banking practice is such that the commissions (rates) can be introduced and changed by credit organizations unilaterally.

In this context it is very important to increase awareness of the bank card holders and create for them additional stimuli for obtaining up-to-date information on the current commissions (rates), which, in its turn, will stimulate competition on the market of banking services.

At the same time, due to certain objective reasons, cash machines cannot display all information regarding all commissions (rates) set by credit organizations for withdrawing cash through cash machines owned by other banks.

In the FAS Russia's opinion, achieving the above goals, in particular, increasing financial competence of consumers and consolidating their immunity, can be facilitated by a mandatory requirement for credit organizations to inform the bank card holders on possibility of charging commissions by the card-issuers for withdrawing funds from the cash machines of other banks.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service has put forward a proposal to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation to consider introducing such a requirement for credit organizations.

Generally, awareness of the consumers of banking services can also be increased by requiring credit organizations to personally notify their clients about forthcoming changes of the amount of commission charged for the operations with the client's account if the bank-client agreement provides for unilateral changing by the bank of the amount for such commissions.

In September 2008 the Federal Antimonopoly Service proposed that this requirement should be formalized in the Federal Law "On Banks and Banking Activities".

The proposed measures will enable the clients of credit organizations to make efficient and well-balanced decisions related to the use of the key banking services and will encourage healthy competition on the banking market.