Banks urged to follow suit as Commonwealth Bank axes ATM fees

Consumers are looking to Australia’s one remaining Big Four bank, NAB, to drop ATM withdrawal fees after Westpac and ANZ announced it would be following the Commonwealth Bank’s lead.

On Sunday morning the Commonwealth Bank became the first to axe fees for customers of other institutions using its ATMs to withdraw cash.

Complaints about the fees led to the decision, the Commonwealth Bank said in a statement on Sunday.

Westpac followed CommBank in announcing it would drop its ATM fees for non-customers. Source: AAP

By Sunday afternoon, Westpac decided it would do the same, saying withdrawal fees would be scrapped from its 2,925 ATMs, including St.George, Bank of Melbourne and BankSA ATMs.

ANZ announced it would ditch its fees shortly before 2pm, leaving NAB of the "big four" still charging the $2 fee.

Government minister Greg Hunt said getting rid of the $2 fee was good for consumers.

"I would urge everybody to follow the competitive lead of the Commonwealth Bank," he told reporters in Melbourne.

Labor leader Bill Shorten says he expects the other big banks to stop rorting their customers, but says it's no reason to ease off a royal commission into banking.

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"The Commonwealth Bank has finally realised that the game is up and the rort has got to stop," he told reporters in Sydney.

"Imagine how we could get better banking for all Australians if we had a banking royal commission."

Reserve Bank of Australia data shows Australians made more than 250 million ATM withdrawals from banks other than their own last year.

Group Executive of Retail Banking Services at the Commonwealth Bank Matt Comyn said Australians have complained for some time about being charged fees for using another bank's ATM.

"We think this change will benefit many Australians and hopefully demonstrate our willingness to listen and act on customer feedback," he said.

No ATM withdrawal fee access applies to the 3400 CommBank-branded ATMs but excludes Bankwest ATMs and customers using overseas cards.