NAFCU opposes ATM fee cap

The National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU) wrote a letter to U.S. senators in opposition to the amendment of the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 that would cap ATM fees at 50 cents per transaction.

According to the Credit Union Times, the ATM industry argues that fees help recover costs of deployment and that a fee cap of 50 cents would have dire consequences for ATM availability.

"While a fee this low might cover the cost of processing an ATM transaction, it does not reflect the additional costs associated with maintaining an ATM and protecting one's own customers or members and the money they hold in a particular institution," the NAFCU wrote. "Such an arbitrary cap on ATM charges could ultimately force many financial institutions, including credit unions, to close their automated machines, to the detriment of their customers and members. While some institutions have charged exorbitantly high fees for transactions processed at their ATMs, we do not believe that this amendment takes the right approach in tackling this problem."