The U.S. Senate May 20 voted not to include Sen. Tom Harkin’s amendment that would have regulated ATM surcharge fees in the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010.
The Senate voted 60 to 40 to limit debate on the legislation, which did not include Harkin’s amendment. The legislation would have given the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau authority to set ATM surcharge fees. Harkin, D- Iowa, introduced the amendment to replace an earlier version designed to cap ATM surcharge fees at 50 cents per transaction.
“The amendment is moot because the senate did not include it in the final bill,” a Harkin spokesperson tells PaymentsSource.
Harkin said during a May 4 news conference when he introduced the initial amendment “our mission in financial reform is to level the playing field for the average Joe. My amendment goes to the heart of that mission, ensuring consumers are not longer victimized by unfair fees.”
ATM surcharge fees range from $2 to $3, with some as high as $5 on cruise ships and casinos, according to industry sources.
The ATM industry opposed both amendments, and industry officials did not consider Harkin’s decision to drop the 50-cent cap on ATM surcharges much of a compromise. “There should be no negotiating,” Jim Cabe, president of the National Association of ATM ISOs and Operators, a trade group of ATM ISOs, said in a statement. “Any surcharge-fee cap is a very bad thing for our industry and for American consumers.”
Kurt Helwig, president and CEO of the Electronic Funds Transfer Association, said Harkin’s new amendment did not mitigate his concerns about the legislation. “We don’t want government regulating [prices] in our market,” Helwig tells PaymentsSource. He said, however, Harkin’s amendment was a warning to the ATM industry to remain vigilant.
