Digital Banking

ATM operator council calls for more bank cooperation

November 23, 2020

The National ATM Council Inc. is embracing a proposal by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, an independent bureau within the U.S. Department of the Treasury, to codify guidance to encourage banks to provide access to services based on individual customer risk assessment rather than broad-based decisions that affect entire customer categories.

The codification will encourage banks to give ATM operators access to the banking system, Bruce W. Renard, executive director of NAC, a U.S. trade association representing independent owners, operators and suppliers of the nation's approximately 278,000 entrepreneur-owned ATMs, said in a statement.

"Since 2013, independent ATM providers have encountered repeated roadblocks in maintaining reasonable access to the banking system, as growing numbers of our nation's banks have closed the accounts of thousands of ATM businesses and refused to open new accounts, without providing any valid or rational basis for such actions," Renard said in the statement. "It has become all too clear that the largest national banks and a growing number of mid-sized and smaller banks have shunned our entire industry sector."

Banks have told NAC members that the account closures and denials are in response to pressure and criticism from bank examiners, often with suggestions that "cash-intensive" businesses, such as ATM providers, could be involved in money-laundering or other illegal activities, possibly putting their banks at risk, Renard said.

Renard also said NAC and its members have corresponded, and met on numerous occasions, with senior officials of the OCC, as well as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a part of the Department of the Treasury, and with numerous members and staff of the U.S. Congress, in efforts to find ways to overcome the crisis that the independent ATM industry is experiencing as a result of widespread denials of bank accounts to ATM deployers.

The OCC's notice of proposed rulemaking specifically refers to independent ATM providers as among those being injured by the current banking practices sought to be curbed by the proposed rule.

"This year, these ATMs have provided a vital service to the nation in helping efficiently and cost-effectively distribute COVID recovery and unemployment funds to many millions of Americans, and the industry stands ready to continue in this essential role in the days ahead," Renard said.

He also said ATM services have been designated as "essential services" by the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency of the Department of Homeland Security.