Leading customer-centric bank, Diamond Bank PLC has described the decision of other commercial banks in Nigeria to remove the N100 ATM withdrawal fee as a welcome development. The bank further stated that such concessions would further strengthen the Central Bank's Cashless Policy initiative.

The Bankers' Committee at its meeting which held on Tuesday, 13 November 2012 in Abuja agreed that it shall henceforth discontinue the deduction of the N100 fee on inter-bank ATM withdrawals hence saving billions of naira for the Nigerian banking public monthly.

Commenting on the lifting of the ATM withdrawal fee by other commercial banks Head, Corporate Communications, Diamond Bank PLC, Mrs. Ayona Aguele-Trimnell stated: "We are glad that the Bankers' Committee has decided to embrace this initiative which Diamond Bank spearheaded five months ago because we always believe that our customers' interests should be put first."

It will be recalled that in July 2012, Diamond Bank PLC announced the lifting of ATM withdrawal fees on transactions made at other banks' ATMs nationwide, thus making it the first bank to offer its customers this unique service. Till date, the bank's customers have continued to freely use their Diamond debit cards on any other bank's ATMs hence saving the N100 they would have paid for each transaction.

"At Diamond, we pride ourselves with continually evolving ways of exceeding customer expectation and the decision to suspend the ATM withdrawal charge on transactions carried out on other bank's ATMs as far back as July this year is a clear demonstration of this. With the adoption of this initiative by the rest of Nigerian banks we are convinced that it would help to usher in a season of better customer service in the industry. This adoption of this initiative also puts reiterates that we must continually innovate in a bid to raise the bar in customer service delivery and we are convinced that Diamond shall continue to take the lead in this respect," concludes Mrs. Trimnell.

Diamond Bank, which unveiled a new brand identity last week, boasts of a wide array of innovative products and services that sets the bank apart from industry players. The Diamond SavingsXtra Reward Scheme, for example, has turned out to be the longest running reward scheme in Nigeria with the launch of the fifth season of the scheme on September 2012. The Salary-4-Life segment of the scheme, sees lucky customers of the bank win N100,000 monthly for the next 20 years for maintaining a minimum of N5,000 in their Diamond SavingsXtra accounts. The bank also pioneered online real-time banking in 1992 with the introduction of DIBS, the Diamond Integrated Banking System, which enabled customers to conduct banking transactions online real-time from anywhere in Nigeria.

The bank has remained a leader in technological innovations and customer service since then.



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