Australia Post is locked in a bitter standoff with ANZ over the bank's refusal to cough up the $22 million annual community fee agreed to by the three other major banks.With only three months left to run on ANZ's existing service agreement with the state owned corporation, the bank's customers are facing the prospect of losing access to over-the-counter transaction services at AusPost's 3500 outlets across the country.Negotiations between the two companies reached an impasse last week, with ANZ's head of retail distribution Paul Presland revealing that the bank had received a notice from AusPost to terminate its existing agreement.If a deal is not struck before the end of December, ANZ customers will lose access to Bank@Post services from the start of January."While we are disappointed by Australia Post's decision, there is currently no change for our customers using Australia Post to conduct basic banking transactions," said Presland."We have been committed to fair and proportionate compensation for the service and will continue discussions with the hope of resolving the matter quickly. "At this stage we have unfortunately been unable to come to a new agreement that is reasonable for both organisations."Banking Day understands that the main sticking point is AusPost's insistence that ANZ pay a new $22 million annual fee agreed to by CBA, Westpac and NAB.ANZ is arguing that its smaller customer base should mean it pays a lower annual fee than its largest rivals - CBA and Westpac.The Melbourne-based bank is concerned that AusPost's flat fee regime will result in it subsidising the use of Bank@Post by its rivals' customers.Presland also cast doubt on ANZ customer demand for the AusPost banking service, saying there were only 900 business customers using Bank@Post on a regular basis who did not have a branch within 20 kilometres of a post office."We will also assess options to look after our relatively small number of customers who frequently use the service where ANZ does not have a branch nearby," he said.AusPost chief executive Christine Holgate said she was disappointed that ANZ had not chosen to pay the new annual fee, which had been earmarked to fund upgrades to the corporation's banking platform.She also hinted that ANZ was developing "its own strategic options" to service retail and business customers in locations where it had no branch representation."We will offer ANZ a new contract to ensure their customers are still able to access the benefit of our services and they are not disadvantaged whilst ANZ continues to develop its own strategic options," Holgate said."The new contract will have a different community representation fee to be paid annually, coupled with revised transaction costs."Holgate also appeared to differ with Presland on the importance of Bank@Post to ANZ customers."We have had a long and successful relationship with ANZ for many years, with 6,000 ANZ customers, many of whom are small businesses, using this growing service every day across 99 per cent of our Post Office network," she said."I remain hopeful that we will find a positive way forward