The challenges of complying with Federal Reserve Board rules implementing provisions of the so-called Durbin amendment and new elements of the Americans With Disabilities Act are uniting at least one sector of the financial-services industry.
After working together for the last year on those and other issues, two formerly separate trade associations for independent ATM deployers are merging.
The newly formed National ATM Council will supersede the National Association of ATM ISOs and Operators and another group, the Alliance of Specialized Communications Providers, the Council announced Sept. 6.
“Independent (ATM) providers require a strong, united industry association guided by deployers and not by entities that represent other interests,” Bruce Renard, executive of the new Council and former director of the Alliance, tells PaymentsSource.
The two former associations discovered common ground when they collaborated during the last year and a half on written comments about proposed legislation and testimony before Congress, Renards says.
“We felt there was a good synergy,” he says of the groups’ working relationship. “It made sense to put the two organizations together.”
The newly formed group will continue to seek answers to questions surrounding recent legislation, Renard says.
ATM-related questions surrounding the Durbin amendment and its provisions that go into effect Oct. 1 include the requirement of providing ATM operators with a choice of at least two transaction networks, he notes. Having a choice would allow operators to choose the alternative enabling them to collect a higher interchange fee, he says.
However, all ATM withdrawals are required to be PIN-debit transactions, so operators would not benefit unless both choices were PIN and neither choice was based on signature debit, Renard says.
New ADA requirements for ATM deployers, which go into effect in March 2012, fall into one of two areas, Renard says. The first is physical barriers, such as the height, reach and building access of ATM machines, and the second addresses accommodations for the visually impaired, such as providing audio or Braille instructions.
It remains unclear to the Council whether providing audio instructions for the visually impaired is sufficient or whether the law requires both audio and Braille, Renard notes.
Besides seeking answers to the remaining questions arising from new rules, the Council intends to stay vigilant in opposing legislation that would cap ATM surcharges, Renard says. One such effort last year, the so-called Harkin amendment, was unsuccessful (
In other legislative efforts, the Council wants to continue to cooperate with other financial-services industry groups, including the ATM Industry Association, Renard says.
Independent ATM deployers should not depend solely on the ATM Industry Association to represent their interests because the group is based outside the United States and members include banks and card brands, Renard warns.
Other issues on the horizon include how U.S. currency equipped with tactile messages for the visually impaired will work in ATMs and whether ATMs have a role in mobile payments, he says.
Members of the new Council include all of the members of the two former associations–about 75 member companies that include deployers, transaction processors and ATM manufacturers, Renard says.
The new Council’s board is comprised of board members of the previous associations and a few new members, Renard says.
The National Association of ATM ISOs was founded about five years ago, and the Alliance of Specialized Communications Providers was formed long before that, originally as a trade group for owners and operators of pay telephones, he says.
As pay telephones disappeared from the landscape with the advent of cellular phones, the group’s members shifted to other businesses, with ATM deployment the most significant, Renard says.
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