OTTAWA - Bank customers would have more money in their wallets if Parliament acts on an NDP proposal and legislates automated teller fees out of existence.

Bank customers are getting “nickeled and dimed” by the fees they pay to use bank machines to get access to “their money,” NDP Leader Jack Layton said today.

“Canadians should not be charged by banks when they deposit, withdraw or transfer their own money using an ATM,” Layton said.

At a Toronto event this morning, Layton proposed amendments to the federal Bank Act that would eliminate the charges that customers face for using automated tellers.

According to the NDP, Canadians used bank-owned ATMs to make over 700 million withdrawals in 2005, plus 400 million other transactions - paying an estimated $420 million in fees to do it.

“It's working families that are hurt most by these outrageous fees,” Layton said in a news release.