Nationwide chief executive warns free cash machines could disappear in the next ten years

In 2000 almost all cash machines were free to withdraw cash from. However since then, the number of companies operating independent fee-charging cash machines has risen dramatically. One of the reasons for the increase may be due to such companies offering retailers more rent to place one of their fee-charging machines in their stores, than for free automatic teller machines. Mr Williamson said ‘We are being actively challenged by retailers who are being approached by some of these fee chargers, asking them: “Would you like to replace your Nationwide cash machine with a fee charging one? We’ll pay you a bit more rent’

Cash machine operators are currently charging consumers £140m a year to withdraw money from their accounts. At the end of 2001 there were around 29,000 free cash machines in the UK. Mr Williamson was concerned that many fee-charging machines were not making it clear to consumers that they could be charged for withdrawing money. Nationwide proposed introducing a colour-coded identification system to cash machines, displaying the red and green on machines to show a consumer at a single glance whether they could be charged for their withdrawal. Link, the company operating Britain’s network of cash machines rejected the proposal.

Mr Williamson was not wholly against the principle of fee-paying machines, saying ‘We don’t have a problem if people want to put a fee-paying machine into a convenient location where no alternatives are available.’ But commented on the positioning of numbers of fee-paying machines in less wealthy areas of the country; ‘Many [fee-paying cash machines] have been located in areas of financial deprivation, which is almost like taking advantage of some sectors of the community’.