Some Canadian banks may be making announcements in the future about the fees they charge for using automated banking machines, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Monday.

However, no formal statement was issued after the minister held a private meeting with bank executives to discuss the contentious issue.

"I pointed out in particular my concern about ABM fees, when one is not using one's own banking machines, for lower income Canadians, including seniors and students and persons with disabilities," he said.

While some argue that banks might just hide such fees elsewhere, the minister said that wasn't discussed at the meeting. But he believed the banks wouldn't do that.

Afterward, Conservative MP Guy Lauzon said on CTV Newsnet's Mike Duffy Live that Flaherty probably found out from the banks what their costs are.

"Being a fair individual, I'm sure he'll come up with a solution that will treat the general population fairly," Lauzon said.

NDP MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis pronounced the meeting a disappointment.

"Instead of coming out of it saying he was going to hold the banks to account ... he said he's going to wait and see," she told MDL.

Flaherty has said his goal is to ensure competition and choice, after NDP Leader Jack Layton launched a scathing criticism of the fees last month.

The New Democrat Leader said the fees, ranging from $1.50 to $2.50, which are charged to clients who withdraw money from their bank accounts at machines of other institutions is "very, very high - and unfair."

The NDP estimates the big banks make as much as $420 million per year in ABM fees, as they accumulated a record $19 billion in total profit last year.

Machines booming

But it appears there is no end in sight to the machines.

In December, the Bank of Montreal ended a year-long upgrade of its bank machine network, installing nearly 2,000 new ones.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) has also reported that it spent $125 million over the past year on upgrading its machines.

Royal Bank of Canada president and CEO Gordon Nixon said Friday that his message to Flaherty will be that Canada has one of the most efficient and low-cost banking markets in the world.

Nixon told reporters after his bank's annual shareholder meeting that any restrictions on bank ATM fees could make the system more costly, and could also be unfair to bank shareholders.

Duff Conacher of the Canadian Community Reinvestment Coalition says the fees have been unfairly on the rise for years.

He pointed to a 1996 decision by the Competition Bureau designed to open up the banking machine market to private, so-called white label ABMs, which aren't affiliated any specific bank.

White labels pushed some of the bank's market presence out of some locations, especially convenience stores, by paying rental fees for space.

The banks responded by increasing their convenience charges.

"That's a sign there's something really wrong with this market," Conacher told The Canadian Press, "because competition increased and the banks doubled their prices."

But some banks maintained an undercover presence on the market, such as CIBC, which launched a white-label operation called Ready Cash, charging even its own customers to use the machines.

The Canadian Bankers Association found in a 2004 survey that 34 per cent of Canadians use the machines as their main way to bank. Canada has the highest ratio of bank machines to citizens of any country in the world, with nearly 16,000 ABMs as of 2005.

The Association also found that the "vast majority" of Canadians use their own banks' machines.

With files from The Canadian Press