Intesa Sanpaolo, Unicredit, Bpm, Popular and more. All branches on the new ATM
What is going on between big banks such as Intesa Sanpaolo and the Popolari on the new Bancomat spa project on interbank commissions
The expectation is growing for the verdict that will have to arrive from Piazza Verdi, headquarters of the Competition and Market Authority, regarding the project presented by Bancomat SpA and relating to the cash withdrawal service with ATM cards at the affiliated ATMs. The start of the investigation dates back to December 2020 but it was then decided to extend it to next April 29 for the further forecasts communicated by Bancomat SpA on July 28 last and regarding – reads the Authority's Bulletin – "the transparency profiles, costs for issuing banks and quantification of the withdrawal commission ".
In the meantime, the controversies continue with smaller banks that see the new methods for the withdrawal service as a threat: with the project presented by Bancomat SpA – this is the accusation – it would end up favoring a "migration" of account holders to the major institutions, with more branches and more useful.
SOME NUMBERS ON BANCOMAT SPA
Bancomat SpA is currently the leader in the debit card payments market in our country: 34 million cards in circulation, approximately 2 billion annual transactions and withdrawals for over 160 billion euros. As of December 29, the shareholders were 116 including Intesa Sanpaolo (31.55%), Unicredit (18.92%), Iccrea (11.2%), Banco Bpm (7.67%), Montepaschi (7.56%) ), Bnl-Bnp (5%), Bper (4.71%), Cassa Centrale (2.79%). There were 210 members of the Bancomat and PagoBancomat circuits as of December 16, 2021. The CEO and general manager of the company is Alessandro Zollo, president Franco Dalla Sega and vice president Giovanni Sabatini who has also been general manager of ABI since 2009.
THE ANTITRUST INVESTIGATION
As we said, now 14 months ago the Antitrust chaired by Roberto Rustichelli initiated proceedings on the project following a communication sent by Bancomat Spa. In Piazza Verdi it was essentially asked to evaluate this "alternative model" starting from the most important, namely the abolition of the interchange fee and the payment of the commission applied to the withdrawal – by the consumer – directly to the credit institution where the ATM is located. The new model hypothesized, reads the initiation provision, "would involve the elimination of the interchange fees currently associated with the ATM withdrawal". The modification of the remuneration model “would be justified by the increase in the costs incurred by banks in managing ATMs, linked to the technological evolution of such equipment and to the greater risks associated with more sophisticated fraudulent initiatives; costs which, in many cases, would be greater than the amount of the interchange fee. The new remuneration system, on the other hand, would incentivize greater investments by the owners of the ATMs in the related equipment, to the benefit of the consumer audience ".
The task of the AGCM is to assess "whether the new circuit rules can configure an agreement likely to restrict or distort competition in the common market, pursuant to article 101 of the TFEU (European Union Functioning Treaty, ed) ". It is therefore necessary to examine whether "the coordination of the market behavior of the subjects participating in the Bancomat Consortium, which occurs due to the provisions of the new remuneration rules for circular withdrawals, entails a restriction of competition, also taking into account the impact on the competitive capacity of the various operators, also in consideration of the different extension of the ATM network ".
THE CRITICISM OF ASSOPOPOLARI
A project, the one presented to the Guarantor by Bancomat SpA, which however does not appeal to Assopopolari, the group of cooperative banks which brings together mostly small-medium sized institutions and which boasts 1,591 branches and 2,096 ATMs. 78% of its account holders hold an ATM card. The popular banks also participate in the capital of the company led by Zollo for an overall percentage equal to 2.65.
According to Startmag , the association was audited by the Competition and Market Authority and on that occasion it would have highlighted how the conclusion from the Bancomat SpA project emerges that the absence of the interbank commission would not have negative economic effects on the consumer. . A statement that Assopopolari would contest because the values shown on the information sheets are maximum and do not outline the actual dynamics of the price and interest rate market. Indeed, according to the data collected by the association, the actual measure of the commission charged to customers of small banks for circular withdrawals is on average lower than the interchange fee.
If we add to this that circular withdrawals represent 25% of the total, it is clear that offering competitive conditions is a crucial competitive variable for all medium-small and locally rooted institutions. Currently, according to Assopopolari, the contracts that the Popular Banks sign with most of their customers provide that circular withdrawals are completely free because the institutions themselves bear most of the direct and indirect costs incurred for withdrawals in circularity at third party ATMs.
For this reason, it would have been asserted at the hearing, the purpose of Bancomat SpA's proposal is to encourage the customers of small and medium-sized banks to migrate to the larger banks, because the former would not be able to maintain free or low prices for circular withdrawals, certainly not a secondary element for choosing the bank with which to open a current account. In short, the innovations desired by the consortium would lead to a move from an interbank price agreement that does not limit competition to an exclusionary agreement to prevent, or at least make it very difficult, for smaller institutions to retain account holders.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/intesa-sanpaolo-unicredit-bpm-popolari-e-non-solo-tutte-le-sportellate-sul-nuovo-bancomat/ on Sun, 06 Mar 2022 06:30:31 +0000.