<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>334616</docID> <postdate>2024-12-04 15:59:16</postdate> <headline>Bank’s bungled cash fee a sign of anti-branch shift</headline> <body><p><img class=" wp-image-334617" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/20210512001541572656-original-1-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="668" height="445" /></p> <caption>Commonwealth Bank has paused a planned $3 withdrawal charge from branches, post offices or by phone. (Joel Carrett/AAP PHOTOS)</caption> <p class="wire-column__preview__author"><span class="kicker-line">By <b>Alex Mitchell</b> in Sydney</span></p> <p><strong>Commonwealth Bank's panned and then postponed call to slug some customers to access their own money has been labelled another attempt to shift people online.</strong></p> <p>Australia's largest bank on Wednesday paused a controversial move to shift all "Complete Access" customers to "Smart Access" accounts, which included a $3 "assisted withdrawal fee".</p> <p>The charge hits customers when they take cash out from bank branches, post offices or over the phone but does not include withdrawals from ATMs.</p> <p>However, after a near-24-hour bashing from all sides of politics, the bank's head of retail services Angus Sullivan announced a temporary reversal of the charge for those likely to take a hip-pocket hit.</p> <p>For the estimated 100,000 customers who would have been worse off, the bank would not enforce the change for at least the next six months.</p> <p>Mr Sullivan admitted the bank butchered the announcement, adding the majority of those moving accounts would have been in a better position.</p> <p>"Just under 90 per cent would have been better off moving to the Smart Access account, which has a lower monthly fee, but … it does have an assisted withdrawal fee," he told Sydney radio 2GB.</p> <p>"We're going to continue to move those customers across … for those customers who might have been in a worse position, we're pausing the migration and we're going to contact all of those customers."</p> <p>Age, service and disability pensioners, customers aged under 18 and people with disabilities that require them to use branches would already have the fee waived.</p> <p>It is also waived if more than $2000 is deposited into the account in a month.</p> <p>Treasurer Jim Chalmers said he spoke with the bank's chief executive, Matt Comyn, before the decision was made public, adding that the flagged proposal was "not acceptable or appropriate".</p> <p>"We are talking in lots of instances about some of the most vulnerable people in the banking system," he said.</p> <p>"I welcome the change of heart."</p> <p>But Swinburne payment systems expert  Steve Worthington said the bank's attempt was in line with a wider industry push towards online services.</p> <p>"We are seeing less and less branches - some of whom do not carry cash at all - shorter branch opening hours and less ATMs," he said.</p> <p>"Commonwealth's introduction of fees for customers to access cash in their branches is just another brick in the wall of the banks driving their customers to use digital banking."</p> <p>Prominent politicians had spent the morning bashing the flagged change.</p> <p>Labor frontbencher Clare O'Neil said the proposal was a "kick in the guts" to people struggling financially.</p> <p>"Everyone's had a bit of a tough year on the cost-of-living front  … come on guys, it's Christmas, we don't need this right now," she said.</p> <p>Liberal senator Jane Hume even pledged to close her own Commonwealth Bank account in protest.</p> <p>"I don't know whether it's a Complete Access account or not (but) it's a bad decision and I will be shutting my account," she said.</p> <p>The government recently announced a proposed mandate for businesses like supermarkets, pharmacies and petrol stations that sell essential items to accept cash payments.</p> <p>About 94 per cent of businesses accept cash, but the figure is down from 99 per cent before the COVID-19 pandemic.</p> <p>An earlier Senate inquiry into the shutting of bank branches across rural Australia recommended a regulator be given the power to veto planned closures.</p> </body>