February 2019


Dynamic Currency Conversion in Europe

By: Ron Delnevo, Executive Director, ATMIA Europe

In December 2018, the European Parliament and Council announced that they had reached a "political" agreement concerning increased transparency in relation to Dynamic Currency Conversion.

The ATM Industry is in the process of analysing, as far as is possible from information currently available, the detail of the proposed changes to regulations. It is not absolutely clear, as of January 2019, precisely what steps will need to be taken by ATM operators and by when.

ATMIA Europe is in touch with both other interested parties and the European Commission in an effort to bottom-out the detail.

The ATMIA has pointed out to both the Commission and representatives of the European Parliament that any negative economic impact for ATM operators of changes to regulations could have serious repercussions for the Continents ATM services. In particular, domestic ATM users in many European markets could suffer significant impairment of the free ATM services they currently enjoy.

Given the potential impact of regulation changes on the economics of operating ATMS, ATMIA Europe will also take this opportunity to raise again with relevant European bodies the potential for a European Union model for the calculation of ATM interchange. The components of this model would be identical in every market, though the quantum of costs would clearly vary between markets.

ATM operators need assured revenue streams if they are going to continue to invest in innovations required to see ATMs offer a comprehensive alternative service to that previously offered by lost bank branches.

Should ATM interchange revenue streams not be assured, there is likely to have to be an increased element of directly charging ATM users for services provided.

In short, a "political" agreement, aimed at intervening solely on the relatively insignificant issue of Dynamic Currency Conversion, could well have unintended and far-reaching consequences, ultimately impacting domestic ATM services enjoyed by many millions of European citizens.

I will continue to report on this issue in our monthly European Newsletter throughout 2019.

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