Scotiabank and four of the world’s leading financial institutions have joined forces to establish the first global ATM Alliance for customers who travel internationally. The first major initiative of the alliance will be to provide over 36 million people free access to more than 20,000 member cash machines on three continents.

The five founding banks of the alliance – Scotiabank, Bank of America, Barclays, Deutsche Bank/Deutsche Bank 24 and Westpac – will waive international access fees for customers who use member banks’ ATMs when travelling out of country. Access fees are the charges that are levied by financial institutions when accounts are accessed from abroad via international networks.

“This alliance is a world first and a ground breaking initiative for global customer service,” says Albert Wahbe, Chairman and CEO e-Scotia and Executive Vice-President, Electronic Banking, Scotiabank. “We will be working with some of the world’s biggest banks to offer our customers more choice and convenience on a global scale.”

Beginning August 1st, Scotiabank customers will be able to withdraw cash without being charged access fees by either the Bank or other Alliance member banks from ATMs in Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Customers of the other alliance member banks will, in turn, be able to withdraw cash without access fees from Scotiabank ATMs throughout Canada. Ultimately the Global ATM Alliance aims to expand this service to every continent of the world.