It is a nice Christmas present that traditional banks offered themselves at the end of 2019. More specifically, it was the Competition Authority that gave fire to the Groupement des Cartes Bancaires (GIECB) for the increase in the cost of the interbank withdrawal commission (CIR), which they charge each other on each withdrawal of cash operated in France.
The price rose on January 1 from 57 cents to 89 cents for each transaction. A 56% increase revealed by the daily Les Echos this Tuesday evening. “This is very good news, especially for the maintenance of distributor networks,” said a banking source to the business daily.
Online banks forced to react?
This price had not increased since 2011, the date of a drop obtained at the time by the same Competition Authority. In the meantime, the massive appearance of online banks has changed the situation for conventional banks which have been asking for years to increase this commission.
The increase in this cost should have an influence on the charges applied to consumers in the coming months, even if the GIE CB denies it.
The question is even more burning on the side of online operators whose model is free and who should bear this additional cost. Without a network of automatic vending machines, they could quickly decide to pass the increase on to their customers.
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