Maputo — Mozambican banks are charging their customers up to 20 per cent extra to withdraw their own money.

A statement published on Friday by the Mozambican Association of Banks (AMB) announces that the commission charged for withdrawing any sum of money via an automatic teller machine (ATM) will be five meticais (18 US cents at current exchange rates).

One bank, Barclays, breaks with the consensus and charges an even higher commission of six meticais.

The AMB makes the misleading claim that this is an "average" increase of nine per cent. But the vast majority of ATMs belong to the largest commercial bank, the Millennium-BIM which up to now has been charging a commission of four meticais for each withdrawal by ATM. So for most Mozambicans with bank accounts, the increase is not nine per cent, but 20 per cent.

Arrangements whereby wages are paid directly into workers' bank accounts are increasingly common, and the workers then use a debit card to withdraw the cash. Whether they withdraw small or large amounts, the commission is the same. Thus someone who withdraws only 200 meticais will pay the bank 2.5 per cent of that sum for the privilege of doing so.

The AMB sugars this pill by announcing a reduction in the commission charged for withdrawing money from a bank other than the one in which the client holds his or her account. Such a withdrawal will cost the client 12 meticais (44 US cents). The AMB claims that this is an average reduction of 80 per cent.

Such transactions are rare - most clients will always use ATMs of their own bank (unless they are out of order or contain no money).

The AMB adds that, if a client consults his bank balance, but in an ATM belonging to another bank, it will cost him seven meticais. Again, it is claimed that this is an 80 per cent reduction.

What the AMB statement does not mention is that recent instructions from the Bank of Mozambique now prevent the commercial banks from charging their own clients to look at their bank balance. Under those instructions, clients have the right to consult their balance once a day at an ATM free of charge, and to obtain a complete monthly bank statement also free of charge.