Baltic, Banks, Financial Services

The first stage of the analysis must answer whether it is necessary to launch such a project and whether it would benefit clients and banks.

SEB communications manager Silver Vohu explained that for clients of banks the main benefits would be that there would be no "alien" ATM for them for use of which they would have to pay extra – all ATMs of the network would be like the client's own bank's.

The ATMs in the network would use a neutral brand. Vohu said that a similar system operates in Finland, the Otto system. In Germany and Belgium there are also pan-bank operators offering such a service.

In the first stage the project is an analysis project. In summer and autumn the analysis of initial offers of service providers will be analyzed and then conclusions will be drawn for further steps. The results of the preliminary analysis that will show whether the project will be developed further or not will be revealed at the end of October.

Currently the four big banks were included in the project because of simplicity and speed since they have pan-Baltic ATM networks. If they decide to launch the common network, other banks have to have a chance to join it.

The four banks have 936 ATMs in Estonia, 604 in Latvia and 868 in Lithuania.