Dutch banks are allowed to collaborate in order to keep ATMs available in rural areas

Banks are allowed to decide together which of them will install ATMs (cash dispensers) in rural areas in the Netherlands in places where currently none are located, yet where demand for them exists. Banks wish to experiment in the southern and sparsely populated region of Zeeuws-Vlaanderen in areas where no ATMs are located within a 5 kilometer radius. One of the options is that banks make arrangements about which bank may install an ATM, and where. That way, rural residents will have access to an ATM within a 5 kilometer radius. The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has approved this collaboration, because it meets the wishes of rural residents, without there being any appreciable restriction of competition between banks.

More and more often, banks decide to remove ATMs from small towns because they are used too little. In about two dozen towns in the Netherlands, residents do not have access to an ATM within a 5 kilometer radius from their homes. This is particularly the case in areas in the East and North of the Netherlands, and in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. The banks wish to collaborate in order to prevent the residents’ ability to withdraw cash from becoming a problem in those areas. ACM has thus cleared this experiment in Zeeuws -Vlaanderen. It has attached one condition to it. Banks cannot make joint arrangements about removing ATMs from larger towns and cities in order to install them in smaller towns. This could reduce the banks’ service to consumers, and harm competition between banks.