The government plans to install an ATM at the Kykkos monastery, according to reports which surfaced on Friday.

The monastery is one of ten planned locations outlined by the government for new ATMs to be installed in remote areas across Cyprus, with the aim of allowing those areas’ inhabitants greater and easier access to banking services.

The list of locations was drawn up by mountain commissioner Charalambos Christofinas, who has in recent months been holding consultations with stakeholders from remote communities to this end.

According to newspaper Phileleftheros, the Kykkos monastery ATM, if installed, will serve the villages of Kampos, Milikouri, Yerakies, and other villages in the area. However, the newspaper said that banks do not see the installation of an ATM at the monastery as a priority.

The newspaper said the other nine locations include the Astromeritis branch of supermarket chain Alphamega, the village of Kalopanayiotis, where there is already an ATM. However, Christofinas has reportedly recommended that an ATM operated by Cypriot payment systems company JCC be installed.

Additionally, it has been reported that plans are afoot for ATMs to be installed in the mountain villages of Kalo Chorio, Eptagonia, Kyvides, Pelendri, Panayia, Salamiou, and Korfi.

The recommendations come after months of pressure for facilities to be opened in remote areas, with the House commerce committee having discussed the matter last year.

Then, committee chairman and Disy MP Kyriacos Hadjiyiannis lamented that banks were “not interested” in the idea, going on to describe the banks as “devoid of social responsibility”.

“It is with great disappointment that we received this negative response from them. It is imperative that they come to serve the elderly. It is their human right to receive money from a reasonable distance.”

He went on to say that “it is a shame what is happening, and I am sorry, because, at the end of the day, our banks only take. They absorb profit from people without returning anything at all.”

Akel MP Costas Costa said he was “greatly disappointed” that “representatives of the banks and the Central Bank are basically telling us that there is no problem.”

He added that they tried to “present some alternative methods that the elderly cannot use.”

He said banks had told the committee that “it would be a problem to install ATMs because the maintenance costs are too high.

“Where do the hundreds of millions that banks make every year go? Could they not invest a very small part of those profits in real people?”

He added, “what we heard today is unacceptable, it is offensive, and it is provocative. Banks must begin to finally understand that they cannot behave in this way.”

There are currently fewer than 500 ATMs in Cyprus.