Barclays Bank customers will have to pay Sh355 ($4) service fee for any transaction on its ATMS when using foreign debit and credit cards effective Monday, a move that is expected to boost transactional earnings and grow its non-funded income.

The Business Daily reports that the latter dropped 2.3 per cent or Sh217 million to a four-year low of Sh9.06 billion in the year to December 2013

“Please note that effective September 1, 2014 Barclays will charge ATM access fee of $4 (exclusive of excise duty) on all foreign card transactions,” BBK said in a notice to customers.

The new charges are most likely to affect foreign holidaymakers and business travellers who use Barclays’ ATMs to withdraw cash.

Barclays Bank’s ATMs accept international plastic cards from payment processors such as Visa, MasterCard, Visa Electron, American Express and Japanese credit card JCB.
Barclays Kenya does not charge its customers any fees for ATM cash withdrawals. It had a network of 230 ATMs at the end of last year.

The lender said the access fee will offset any forex fluctuations given the volatility of the floating exchange rate system it applies when a foreign card withdraws cash in Kenya Shillings from its network.

“We have introduced the charge in order to cushion the bank against foreign currency fluctuations,” said Jeremy Awori, managing director of BBK.