More than half of Britain's ATMs could disappear from high streets if banks are unable to agree on a new deal to pay for the machines at a crisis meeting being held on Thursday.

Independent ATM companies, which provide 57pc of Britain's ATMs, say that their standalone cashpoints, which tend to be in rural and residential areas, could become unviable as banks seek to reduce the fees they pay when their customers use them.

Under the current LINK arrangement, customers of any bank can use other banks' cashpoints for free, as well as cashpoints provided by independent companies such as Cashzone and PayPoint.

The customer's bank pays a small fee of around 25p to the ATM provider every time this happens.

The dispute has arisen because banks say that the charges they pay for their customers to use non-branch cash machines are too high.

They are currently higher than the fees they pay when their customers use ATMs provided at other bank branches.

Other providers say higher fees are justified by the location of the machines.