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NAC, ATMIA join forces against ongoing effects of Operation Choke Point

February 18, 2019

The National ATM Council and the ATM Industry Association have signed a memorandum of understanding for a joint campaign aimed at ending unjustified bank account closures and new account denials in the U.S. independent ATM market that are the ongoing result of the now defunct Operation Choke Point program. 

According to a press release, the memorandum paves the way for the two organizations to share resources, ideas, information and plans to combat this issue in a segment of the U.S. market that accounts for more than half of the ATMs currently deployed across the nation. 

"NAC is excited to be working with ATMIA in our fight to restore reasonable access to the U.S. banking system for America's independent ATM providers," NAC Executive Director Bruce Wayne Renard said in the release. "Working together I am hopeful we can reverse the current misperceptions that ATM companies are 'high risk' accounts, and instead restore an understanding that ATM providers are in fact bank sponsored and heavily vetted businesses, whose vault cash is inherently trackable as part of the simple, cyclical, closed-loop and highly transparent 'financial settlements' process to which it is subject."

"The ATM Industry Association strongly opposes any arbitrary bank account closures in the vital independent retail ATM market, as this sector is crucial to the circulation of cash throughout the U.S. economy and to the daily operation of thousands of businesses," said ATMIA CEO Mike Lee, who worked with Renard to craft the agreement with Renard. 'I'm delighted and honored to partner with NAC to eradicate all the lingering impacts of Choke Point. This is our top U.S. industry issue today."

The associations are in the process of formulating a joint action plan and exchanging resources to redouble their advocacy efforts. As another initial step in the initiative, ATMIA and NAC are coordinating parallel ATM industry surveys to gather current and comprehensive data on the full scope and nature of the problem.

"There is a significant lack of understanding [among financial institutions] about how the independent ATM cash cycle works," David Tente, executive director for ATMIA for the U.S. and the Americas, said in the release. '[This] often results in independent operators being misclassified as money services businesses. We hope that through a united front, ATMIA and NAC can affect real change in how banks engage with our members."

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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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