The Federal Government refuses to provide clarity on how ATMs are being distributed in Belgium. Several organisations are now taking the matter to the Council of State to ensure transparency.
Cash machines are disappearing at a rapid rate across Belgium, prompting recurring complaints about the difficulty of withdrawing money. The government has signed an agreement with Febelfin, the federation for the Belgian banking sector, promising that more ATMs will be installed nationwide, "more harmoniously than today".
However, consumer groups Test Achats, Financité and Okra strongly criticised the agreement and asked for additional information, in particular on the maximum distance an ATM can be from people and transparency about the methodology to determine how ATMs are distributed across the country.
Ministers have previously turned down requests to provide this information. In the meantime, Belgian banks continue to cut the number of cash machines.
Keeping cash available
When the ministers concerned refused to provide this information, the three organisations took the matter to the Commission for Access to Administrative Documents, which ruled in their favour on 4 October. However, the ministers concerned have stuck to their guns.
"Given the stubborn refusal of the ministers concerned to be transparent about something that is nonetheless fundamental in the daily lives of so many people, we have decided to refer the matter to the Council of State," said Laura Clays, spokesperson for Test Achats.
Anne Fily, a financial inclusion researcher at Financité, argued that access to this information is the "only way to correctly analyse the impact of this agreement based on concrete evidence".
The organisations also launched a petition to preserve access to cash which has already collected more than 29,000 signatures.
