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ATM industry group calls out media, pols for 'misleading' statements about fees

The ATM Industry Association says that political interests have branded the fees "exploitative" and "usurious," while making little or no effort to determine the facts.

November 2, 2015

The ATM Industry Association has issued a public response to recent news reports about U.S. ATM fees that the association considers misleading.

In a press release, ATMIA said that political interests have branded the fees "exploitative" and "usurious," while making little or no effort to determine the facts.

"The current public perception about ATM fees is off the mark," ATMIA CEO Mike Lee said in the release. "Politicians should acquaint themselves with the real facts of our industry before making off-the-cuff and inaccurate remarks which are easily taken out of context."

The ATMIA release said that a bankrate.com study of banks' ATM fees published several weeks ago correctly reported that the national average bank surcharge is about $2.88.

The original study noted also that, " ... your own bank likely will charge you a fee that averages $1.64 for using an out-of-network ATM," resulting in a total fee of $4.52.

The ATMIA release said that much of the news coverage arising from the published study ignored these details and simply declared that $4.52 was the average surcharge imposed by ATM operators. In addition, Lee said, many reports failed to mention that consumers also have access to surcharge-free ATMs.

In defense of IADs, the ATMIA said that commissioned research conducted this year showed that independent ATM operators typically realize profit margins of just 6 to 7 percent, pretax.

According to the release:

By any measure, this margin is a long way from being exploitative or unfair. In fact, convenience fees for ATMs operated by IADs, on average, are already less than for those operated by banks.

ATMs are placed in convenient locations away from the branch at a high cost and the current business model has enabled hundreds of thousands of these deployments to be viable in the long run.

ATMIA encourages legislators and regulators to bear these facts in mind when evaluating the state of the industry. It is critically important to understand the differences between fees imposed by the consumer's bank and those needed by the ATM operator to continue providing convenient access tocash.

An ATMIA position paper on surcharging can be downloaded from the association's website.

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ATM Industry Association (ATMIA)

The ATM Industry Association, founded in 1997, is a global non-profit trade association with over 10,500 members in 65 countries. The membership base covers the full range of this worldwide industry comprising over 2.2 million installed ATMs.

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