Footnotes

Chapter 1 - Foreign ATM fees and charges

[1]        Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, Money Matters in the Bush, January 2004, executive summary.

[2]        New data collected by the Reserve Bank of Australia shows that ‘foreign ATM transactions have increased significantly to more than 40 per cent of ATM cash withdrawals in 2002, up from around 30 per cent in 1999’. Reserve Bank of Australia, ‘The Changing Australian Retail Payments Landscape; Reserve Bank of Australia Bulletin, July 2003, p. 7.

[3]        The Table is a compilation of figures taken from Reserve Bank of Australia Bulletin, June 1999, p. 3; July 2001, p. 3; and April 2003, p. 3. There is a discrepancy in the figure given for 2001 for fees on cheques with the 2001 figures recording a fee of $1.00. 

[4]        Reserve Bank of Australia, C05 Points of Access to the Australian Payments System, http://www.rba.gov.au/Statistics/Bulletin/index.html#table_C  (updated version, 9 July 2003); Australian Payments Clearing Association Limited, Number of ATMs and EFTPOS terminals, http://www.apca.com.au/Public/apca01_live.nsf/All/B59D1DB6DBB94A256DB (9 October 2003).

[5]        Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, Money Matters in the Bush, December 2003, p. 181.

Chapter 2 - Proposed direct charging regime

[1]        See chapter 5 of the main report, Money Matters in the Bush.

[2]        Reserve Bank of Australia and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Debit and Credit Card Schemes in Australia: A Study of Interchange Fees and Access,  October 2000, p. 33.

[3]        New data collected by the Reserve Bank of Australia shows that ‘foreign ATM transactions have increased significantly to more than 40 per cent of ATM cash withdrawals in 2002, up from around 30 per cent in 1999’. Reserve Bank of Australia, ‘The Changing Australian Retail Payments Landscape; Reserve Bank of Australia Bulletin, July 2003, p. 7.

[4]        ATM Industry Steering Group, Discussion Paper, p. 16 of 24.

[5]        ATM Industry Steering Group, Discussion Paper, p. 16 of 24.

[6]        Reserve Bank of Australia and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Debit and Credit Card Schemes in Australia: A Study of Interchange Fees and Access, October 2000, footnote 16, p. 33.

[7]        Reserve Bank of Australia and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Debit and Credit Card Schemes in Australia: A Study of Interchange Fees and Access, October 2000, footnote 16, p. 33.

[8]        Reserve Bank of Australia and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Debit and Credit Card Schemes in Australia: A Study of Interchange Fees and Access,  October 2000, p. ii. This figure differs slightly from the amount of $1.06 given on page 33 of the study.

[9]        Reserve Bank of Australia and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Debit and Credit Card Schemes in Australia: A Study of Interchange Fees and Access,  October 2000, p. i.

[10]      Reserve Bank of Australia and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Debit and Credit Card Schemes in Australia: A Study of Interchange Fees and Access,  October 2000, p. i.

[11]      Reserve Bank of Australia and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Debit and Credit Card Schemes in Australia: A Study of Interchange Fees and Access, October 2000, pp. 36–7.

[12]      Reserve Bank of Australia and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Debit and Credit Card Schemes in Australia: A Study of Interchange Fees and Access, October 2000, p. 38.

[13]      Reserve Bank of Australia and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Debit and Credit Card Schemes in Australia: A Study of Interchange Fees and Access, October 2000, p. 37.

[14]      Reserve Bank of Australia and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Debit and Credit Card Schemes in Australia: A Study of Interchange Fees and Access, October 2000, p. 38.

[15]      Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 610.

[16]      Reserve Bank of Australia and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Debit and Credit Card Schemes in Australia: A Study of Interchange Fees and Access,  October 2000, p. 40.

[17]      Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 610.

[18]      Reserve Bank of Australia and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Debit and Credit Card Schemes in Australia: A Study of Interchange Fees and Access,  October 2000, p. 41.

[19]      Parliamentary Joint Statutory Committee on Corporations and Securities, Report on Fees on Electronic and Telephone Banking, February 2001, p. 3.

[20]      ibid. For example see arguments put forward by the Consumer Law Centre Victoria Limited, p. 8.

[21]      ibid, p. 37.

[22]      Labor Members Report, Bank Fees: Up, Up and Away, in Parliamentary Joint Statutory Committee on Corporations and Securities, Report on Fees on Electronic and Telephone Banking,  February 2001, p. 2.

[23]      Subsequent to the commencement of the Financial Services Reform Act 2001 on 11 March 2002, the name of the Parliamentary Joint Statutory Committee on Corporations and Securities changed.  Schedule 1, Part 2 of the Act, at 5 Paragraph 1(1) (d), amended the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 so that the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Securities became the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services (Part 14 of the ASIC Act).

[24]      Organisations contacted included Adelaide Bank Ltd, ANZ Banking Group Ltd, Bank of Queensland Ltd, Bank of Western Australia Ltd, Bendigo Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank Ltd, St George Bank Ltd, Suncorp-Metway Ltd, Westpac Banking Corporation, the Australian Banking Industry Ombudsman, Australian Banker’s Association, Credit Union Service Corporation (Aust) Ltd, Australian Association of Permanent Building Societies, and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

[25]      ATM Industry Steering Group, Discussion Paper, p. 16 of 24.

[26]      ATM Industry Steering Group, Discussion Paper, p. 3 of 24.

[27]      ATM Industry Steering Group, Discussion Paper, p. 21 of 24.

[28]      ibid, p. 7.

[29]      ATM Industry Steering Group, Discussion Paper, p. 17 of 24.

[30]      ibid, p. 7.

[31]      ibid, pp. 17–18.

[32]      See Australian Consumers’ Association, Submission to the ATM Industry Steering Group on Interchange Reform.

[33]      Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 627.

[34]      Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 630.

[35]      Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 628. 

[36]      Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 622.

[37]      Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 609.

[38]      Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 616.

[39]      Ms Michele Bullock supported this view with her statement that ‘What you can say is that where there are not currently ATMs, it costs more than $1 per transaction to put one there.’ Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 632.

[40]      Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 632.

[41]      Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 621. Mr Bell explained some of the component costs which included—operations, signage, switching and transaction processing, the cost of holding cash, locking, balancing and sourcing it, communications line rental, installation, leasing, appreciation, maintenance costs and rent. He stated further that he did make a statement that ‘there is an equivalency between city and country ATM sites for different reasons, so from a cost basis there is likely to be an equivalency’. Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 626.

[42]      Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 625.

[43]      See Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, Money Matters in the Bush, chapter 11, paragraphs 11.18 and 11.19.

[44]      ibid, p. 237.

[45]      Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 623.

[46]      Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 624.

[47]      Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 611.

[48]      Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 616.

[49]      Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, pp. 637–8.

[50]      Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 615. See also the submission by the Australian Consumers Association in response to the AISG’s discussion paper, p. 3. It stated ‘Customers in lower volume areas are unlikely markets for such competition both on the basis that costs of establishing and maintaining ATM terminals in their areas are greater, and costs recovered through direct charges will therefore be higher, and they have less opportunity to shop around to exert downward pressure on prices. A clear analogy is petrol pricing, where urban consumers consistently pay power petrol prices than regional and rural consumers.’ 

[51]      Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 623.

[52]      Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 624.

[53]      Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 625.

[54]      Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 625.

[55]      See chapter 5 of the main report, Money Matters in the Bush.

[56]      Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 616.

[57]      Submission in response to the ATM Industry Steering Group’s discussion paper, p.5.

[58]      Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 636.

[59]      Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 612.

[60]      Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 630.

[61]      Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 613.

[62]      See for example, comments by Mr Veale, Mr Bell, Ms Wolthuizen Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, pp. 611, 616 and 623

[63]      Reserve Bank of Australia, ‘Paying for Using a “foreign” ATM’, tabled during public hearing, 5 November 2003. 

[64]      See paragraph 2.36.

[65]      Parliamentary Joint Statutory Committee on Corporations and Securities, Report on Fees on Electronic and Telephone Banking, February 2001, p. 37 and p. 19 of the Labor Members Report.

Additional comments by Labor Members

[1]        Paragraph 1.4.

[2]        Paragraph 2.52.

[3]        Ms Catherine Wolthuizen, Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 614.

[4]        Committee Hansard, 5 November 2003, p. 613.

[5]        Sue Lowe, ‘Now, the ATM that takes your cash back”, Sydney Morning Herald, 20 December 2003.