The political and economic uncertainty in Greece has led one of the four largest banks in Australia, NAB, to cease all euro currency dealings with Greek banks directly and choosing to use a German Bank as a middle man in Australian financial transactions to Greece. This in turn has forced customers of NAB to incur extra fees to pay for the involvement of the German bank, on top of the international transaction fees that need to be paid.
However, NAB have denied the extra fees stating that “the involvement of Deutsche Bank should not be adding significant charges to the customer,” and added that if this is happening the customer should advise their local branch.
However, the additional fees are being incurred by customers sending money over to Greece, and in some cases, customers are paying in excess of $30 in fees to the German bank.
As it stands, the only way a customer of NAB wishing to send money to Greece can do so is to allow NAB to include the Deutsche Bank in Germany as a middleman in the transaction process, which leads to the unavoidable rise in transaction fees. NAB has also stopped issuing cheque’s that can be cashed in Greek banks, and also has also ended Australian bank electronic transactions.
A spokesperson for NAB told Neos Kosmos that this decision was made to “ensure maximum protection for [their] customers against potential losses” and therefore, “NAB has put in place temporary measures to the way it sends international payments to Greece on behalf of customers”.
Until now, the cost of a wire transfer – telegraphic transfer -through the NAB to Greece was a $30 amount paid by the sender. The costs of transportation paid before the beneficiary in Greek banks, when the money entered an account was approximately four euro per transaction. But now, because the Australian transaction is being sent to the German bank, the sender, or in some cases the recipient, will need to pay an extra $30 on top of the other transaction fees.
An NAB spokesperson told Neos Kosmos that “these changes were made in the context of recent credit downgrades of Greek banks and by a number of worldwide Financial Risk Ratings Agencies”, however, Greece has not gone into default, has the support of the European partners, therefore one can’t help conclude that this may be a knee jerk reaction by one of Australia’s biggest banks.
As it stands, no other Australian bank has changed the way they deal with Greek banks.
Neos Kosmos spoke with Mr. George Euripides, manager of the Oakleigh branch of Beirut Hellenic Bank, who said “every Australian bank cooperates with a Greek bank for the transactions in both the money and cheque’s and money via wire transfer sent to this correspondent bank.”
Mr. Euripides expressed his surprise at the specific decision but reserved comment on the situation with NAB.
