In the Netherlands could always take money from other machines. These are called guest transaction and where free but only allowed once a day.
Since the maintenance and upkeep is expensive some banks decided to co-operate the cash machines.
Since all transaction go via a central system. Even if the machine is from your own bank.
This central system used to be owned by the banks, but this might not be the case any more.
Do to privacy laws banks can not just check into your transactions, if they do and get caught the fines are huge. So I do not think they would risk it.
So iiuc, you’re saying some care is taken to not expose the transaction data to all the banks. Good to hear.
Some clarity is still needed. E.g. I insert a foreign card by bank X, doesn’t one of the co-op banks have to be selected? The ATM itself must have a bank account where the electronic money lands in exchange for the cash being dispensed. I trust some banks more than others & Ing is low on the trust scale, so I’m a bit bothered by the lack of transparency & lack of choice.
The consolidation is in itself a problem. There are only two major ATM providers (geldmaat & euronet) & the smaller independent ATMs are losing ground. This means consumers only have two practical choices for handles their transaction & in neither case do you know which bank you’re trusting with the data.