The Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (Fomca) has dubbed the reinstatement of the RM1 fee for interbank ATM withdrawals as "daylight robbery".

According to its senior vice-president K. Koris Atan, this is because the people are still suffering as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Banks should instead focus on educating the public about conducting online bank transfers, of which many people are unaware of, he told Malaysiakini.

"This is because many people, especially the elderly and those in the rural areas, still use the ATM for their transactions.

"As such, reimposing the RM1 fee at this juncture would only further burden the already suffering," he told the portal.

Yesterday, it was reported that banks and financial institutions will reimpose the Rm1 fees for the Malaysian Electronic Payment System (MEPS) Interbank ATM withdrawal fee effective Feb 1, 2022.

Several banks, including Maybank, Hong Leong, Public Bank, Bank Islam, and CIMB, have started putting up announcements of the move on their websites and social media platforms, although the Bank Negara is yet to make an official announcement on the matter.

The government enforced the waiver on April 6, 2020, as a way to reduce travel and movement, and reduce COVID-19 infection risk, in light of the Movement Control Order (MCO) imposed then.

The charge was supposed to have been reinstated in August this year when the country moved in the National Recovery Plan (NRP), but there have been no announcement made since.


Source: Malaysiakini
Photo source: Bernama