On Friday, representatives of the Labour Party held a symbolic rally outside the Vilnius headquarters of the biggest commercial banks operating in Lithuania - SEB, Swedbank and DNB.
On Friday, representatives of the Labour Party held a symbolic rally outside the Vilnius headquarters of the biggest commercial banks operating in Lithuania - SEB, Swedbank and DNB.
The rally was held to protest the recent decision of the banks to introduce taxes on cash withdrawals from ATMs. Party's head Valentinas Mazuronis says that he sees potential mutual agreement in the recent action of the banks.
According to him, the rally was organised in order to draw people's attention to unreasonable banking fees and the banks' ambition to regulate financial habits in people.
"There must be a fee ceiling established for banking services. There must be an end to the wish of the commercial banks to earn from services which no one can opt out from rather than from crediting, what they should really be making money from," said the Labour Party's leader in front of the SEB headquarters in Vilnius.
SEB Lithuania has recently introduced a 0.4 percent fee for customers who withdraw more than EUR 500 per month in ATMs. Swedbank's maximum free of charge withdrawal amount is EUR 580, everything above is subject to a 0.4 percent fee. As of 1 August, DNB will start applying a one-time EUR 0.3 fee for any withdrawals from ATMs regardless of the amount. Banks claims that such steps in Lithuania were made to encourage card and online payments.
