"This is a win for all Australians" said Matt Comyn CEO of Commbank when he axed ATM fees in September 2017, giving up $500 million in bank revenue.
Later Matt Comyn complained about the $350 million cost of maintaining Commbank's cash network while defending his dismantling of it.
Matt Comyn also admitted to underpaying Armaguard and Prosegur, the businesses that deliver cash to all parts of Australia.
Matt Comyn's 'win for all Australians' was really the beginning of a huge trick to make the cash system expensive then close it down.
Now Matt Comyn wants to pay peanuts to maintain a 'safety net' of (minimum) one cash access point is every town. That doesn't work, as Sweden has discovered. Cash has to be freely circulating in the community for the system to work.
We need banks to tell us how we are going to be accessing our cash when they close the branch or ATM. It's not good enough for Matt Comyn and the other CEOs to talk about the cost of their business when they themselves axed the fees that sustained their cash network.
This is what I told Guardian Australia this week, that ATM fees support the distribution of cash:
“Banks have more than a social responsibility to deliver cash, they have an economic responsibility to maintain this national economic infrastructure. Banks must ensure that we can have easy, local, cheap, or preferably fee-free access to our cash.”
“You can’t turn it on if there’s a natural disaster or a war. Cash has to be operating, and it’s got to be freely circulating.”
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Thanks to everyone for backing Bart and I to continue this campaign and petition. We rely on your support to keep it all going.
Jason Bryce
Jason@CashWelcome.ORG