Barclays delays ATM fee
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September 23, 1999: 11:06 a.m. ET
Bank delays new charge for using its ATMs, as rival suspends legal action
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London (CNNfn) - U.K. bank Barclays has agreed to postpone its controversial plan to introduce a one pound surcharge on other banks' customers who make withdrawals from its ATMs.
An interim compromise was reached at the eleventh hour Thursday after a meeting between Barclays and the mutually owned Nationwide building society, which had threatened legal action if the charges were introduced.
Barclays wanted to impose the $1.64 charge on the customers of rival banks, who previously had free use of Barclays' ATM network through a nationwide organization called Link.
The Nationwide building society had given Barclays until the close of business Thursday to promise to end the planned charge, after which court action could be instigated.
In a joint statement, the two banks confirmed both sides had postponed any immediate action and called on "Link to bring its members together urgently to bring about a solution."
Industry sources told The Guardian newspaper that the move by Barclays to charge some of its rivals' customers the ATM fee to take cash from its machines threatened to destabilize the Link network.
The newspaper reported that mutually owned Nationwide would accept nothing less than a complete reversal of Barclays new policy.
Barclays stock was up 1.5 percent at 1,658 pence in London Thursday.
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Barclays
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