More than 500 ATMs to be installed in R-Kiosks across Finland

Cash withdrawals from new ATMs are not entirely cost-free

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On Thursday Rautakirja reported that in cooperation with Eurocash Finland they will be bringing new Nosto ATMs to R-Kiosks, and in the next few years, more than 500 machines will be installed in R-Kiosks across the country.
     
The first Nosto ATMs have already been installed in the Helsinki city centre, allowing withdrawals of EUR 10, EUR 20, and EUR 50 banknotes with Visa, Visa Electron, Mastercard, and the new European SEPA debit cards, which will replace the current Finnish bank debit cards by 2010.
      Another rival company, Suomen käteisnosto, is to install its first Anna cashpoints in May.
      In its press release Rautakirja stated that consumers can use the new Nosto ATMs without a separate charge, but this is not entirely true.
     
Even though the company operating the machines does not charge the consumers for the use of the ATMs, the large banks do charge fees for cash withdrawals from their accounts.
      Nordea and the OP Bank Group have already announced that cash withdrawals from other than their own Otto ATMs will cost the consumer EUR 1.00 per withdrawal plus 2% of the sum withdrawn. For example, a commission to be charged for a withdrawal of EUR 10 would be EUR 1.20.
      Reportedly even Sampo Bank intends to issue a fee for all cash withdrawals from its accounts. A decision on the charges will be made in the next few days.
      Markku Pelkonen, the Senior Vice President of Kiosk Operations at Rautakirja, explained on Thursday why they claimed that the customers would be able to use the Nosto ATMs without a separate charge.
      Pelkonen believes that the banks will have to change their attitude towards the charges.
     
"I am confident that consumers will not approve such charges in the long run", said Pelkonen.
      ”As has already happened in Sweden, these charges will also have to be dropped in Finland. Handelsbanken and Ålandsbanken have already done so”, Pelkonen reported.
     
Finland apparently has a relatively under-developed network of ATMs, at least if measured in terms of the number of withdrawals per machine. Increasingly they are being concentrated in high-traffic areas such as large shopping malls, but are disappearing from the former familiar street-corner locations.
      "We are concerned about this recent development, which has complicated cash withdrawals. We want to do our share to ensure that people have access to local services on a daily basis,” Pelkonen noted further.
      Adding an extra 500 ATMs will presumably make access easier. It will also do the kiosks no harm.
     
"Our benefits will come out of increased customer volumes and sales growth, made possible by introducing the ATMs in our kiosks”, Pelkonen concluded.
      The market leader in kiosk operations, press distribution, and movie theatres in Finland, Rautakirja is part of the SanomaWSOY Group, which operates in different media areas in over 20 countries in Europe, and which is also the parent company of Helsingin Sanomat.
      Eurocash Finland Oy is a subsidiary of Kontanten AB, the leading private ATM provider in the Nordic countries.


Links:
  Rautakirja press release 13.3.2008
  Nordea
  OP-Pohjola Group

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