The National ATM Council, Inc. (NAC), the nation's leading trade association representing U.S. independent ATM providers, wrote to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) last week, asking for their support of Senate Bill 3394, to eliminate the present duplicative and ineffectual requirement for exterior fee notice posting on ATMs.
This request follows NAC's ongoing initiatives in Washington to have this harmful requirement eliminated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Congress. NAC has previously filed comments and reply comments with the CFPB, and has actively lobbied key members of Congress to end the current fee sticker law requirement.
"The current fee sticker law provides no useful consumer protections and instead has only given rise to a deluge of frivolous litigation against ATM owners nationwide," says Bruce Renard, NAC Executive Director.
"NAC members, who account for a large percentage of the nation's most convenient and reliable ATMs, serving millions of Americans and providing thousands of jobs, have been forced to spend significant time, money and resources over the last 18 months dealing with a growing onslaught of frivolous lawsuits arising out of the ATM external fee posting requirement," says Renard. "This requirement for an exterior ATM fee placard is harming a vital industry sector that provides ready access to the cash that helps make our economy tick."
Senate Bill 3394 will keep intact the on-screen ATM fee disclosure that exists today.
"Unlike the external fee sticker notice, this on-screen disclosure indicates the precise amount of any ATM fee to be charged for a given transaction and provides the consumer with an option to cancel that transaction once the fee amount has been disclosed," continues Renard.
The House of Representatives has unanimously passed its bipartisan measure to eliminate the external fee placard requirement, and it is now up to the Senate to pass its bill as expeditiously as possible, so Congress can enact final legislation and have a measure on the President's desk for signature without delay.
"We are asking Senate Leaders Reid and McConnell to do all in their power to ensure a prompt and effective bipartisan resolution of the problem," says Renard. "Every day the present law remains in effect means more wasteful litigation that accomplishes no valid public purposes and instead ties up the courts and the ATM industry with costly and frivolous law suits."