A few days ago we wrote that the Hungarian equivalent of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) had taken the local company Euronet under the microscope for tinkering with the ATM interface. A similar case concerned the Polish market. There were allegations that the ATM operator was ripping off customers with additional fees. The “Polish” Euronet responded to the UOKiK intervention.
In both cases, it is the ATM menu. Some time ago, Euronet changed the basic menu of the machines so that only two options were displayed: “Cash withdrawal and balance” and “Other services”. The problem was that checking the balance is usually additionally paid. A customer who instinctively chose the first item on the menu might not have to pay for cash withdrawal, but the bank charged a fee for checking the balance. Regular cash withdrawal (without checking the balance) was hidden under the “Other operations” button.
The company did not respond to our question about how the number of balance inquiries increased after the changes were introduced.
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The case was finally referred to the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection. We asked the office how the proceedings in this case were resolved.
– The President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) explained the Euronet ATM interface. During the proceedings, the company declared and implemented changes so that consumers could see both the cash withdrawal and withdrawal + balance options on the screen, and thus not incur unwanted costs when withdrawing cash – we were told in the UOKiK press office.
And indeed – the menu has now returned to its original settings. Customers can choose to withdraw cash only, inquire about their balance or go to other services. Now, the Hungarian equivalent of our Office for Competition and Consumer Protection – The Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) – will deal with a similar matter.
However, it is worth explaining why Euronet in Poland introduced the controversial changes described above. As well as the irritating customer withdrawal limit of PLN 800.
The ATM industry is having serious problems with profitability. For 15 years, the rate for cash withdrawals with a domestic card, and since 2015 also using the Blik code (the so-called ATM interchange), which VISA, Mastercard and the Polish Payment Standard (Blik) pay to ATM operators, has remained practically unchanged. This – as Euronet reports – has led to a situation in which “domestic cash withdrawals are carried out by ATM operators in Poland more than twice the costs they incur in connection with such a service”.
The problems of the industry are visible in the NBP statistics. At the end of the third quarter of 2024, there were fewer than 21,000 ATMs in Poland. Meanwhile, in 2017, there were over 23,000. Instead of growing, the network is shrinking. As a result, Poles have fewer and fewer machines at their disposal from which they can withdraw cash.
An additional issue that may influence this situation is the changing preferences of customers – more and more people pay cashless and withdraw money from machines less often.
Last year, Euronet published the results of an analysis showing that the industry's profitability has been consistently declining, and revenues from domestic cash withdrawals (ATM interchange) cover only about 49 percent of the costs of a domestic withdrawal transaction incurred by independent operators.
Euronet currently has a network of around 7,000 devices. The company has been present in Poland for 30 years. Its first ATM was installed in 1995 in the Marriot Hotel.
