16th June 2026 - 2 min read
Starting next month, you can withdraw cash from any bank’s ATM in the country without paying the RM1 interbank fee. The change takes effect on 1 July 2026 and applies to all ATMs and smart recycler machines (SRMs) operated by banks across the country.
The fee removal was announced jointly on 15 June 2026 by the Association of Banks in Malaysia (ABM), the Association of Islamic Banking and Financial Institutions Malaysia (AIBIM), and the Association of Development Finance Institutions of Malaysia (ADFIM), in collaboration with Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PayNet).
The waiver covers all Malaysian debit cardholders and gives you access to more than 14,000 ATMs and SRMs nationwide, with no cap on the number of free withdrawals.
Until now, withdrawing cash from another bank’s ATM cost you RM1 per transaction. Three withdrawals a week from a different bank’s machine would cost you around RM12 a month.
The RM1 fee was first introduced through the MEPS interbank network and was temporarily waived during the Movement Control Order (MCO) in April 2020, when the government wanted to reduce unnecessary movement. That waiver ended when the fee was reinstated in February 2022, after pandemic restrictions were lifted.
This time, the removal is permanent, not tied to any emergency measure.
Digital transactions in Malaysia hit 8.44 billion in 2025, but wet markets, hawker stalls, parking systems, school canteens, and smaller shops in less urbanised areas often still run on cash. It is also a common budgeting tool for people who withdraw a fixed amount each week or month.
If you live or work somewhere your own bank’s ATM is not nearby, the fee removal changes your options. In smaller towns, rural areas, and parts of East Malaysia, you may only have access to one or two bank ATMs within a reasonable distance. Previously, that meant either making a special trip to your own bank’s machine or paying RM1 every time you used a different one. The same goes for customers of smaller banks or development financial institutions with fewer ATMs, who can now use any of the 14,000-plus machines nationwide at no cost.
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As a creative content writer, Eloise has covered finance, business, lifestyle topics, and even moonlights as a singer-songwriter outside of RinggitPlus. Her current interests are learning the best ways to optimise spending and credit card hacks to gain more airline miles.
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