WASHINGTON The Federal Reserve Board approved fee schedules Wednesday for next year for its various services to member banks, including Fed wire funds transfers, settlements, and check processing.
The Fed continued its trend of providing incentives for banks to use electronic payment services by increasing the fees for check and other paper-based payments by an average of 6.4%, while reducing charges for electronic transactions 1.9%.
Federal law requires the central bank to set prices at a level that will ensure that over the long run it recovers its costs for providing such services to banks. From 1990 to 1999 the Fed recouped 99.7% of its costs. It expects to recover 100.4% of its costs through fees this year, but only 98% next year because of costs associated with modernizing the system to better accommodate electronic payments.
The 35-page notice outlining the new fee schedule is available on the Fed Web site at www.federalreserve.gov.
