NEW ATMIA WASHINGTON DC FLY-IN A NOTABLE SUCCESS

SIOUX FALLS, SD, April 16, 2018.  ATMIA (the ATM Industry Association) hosted a two-day fly-in event last week in Washington, DC.  A full schedule of eight meetings focused on members of the House Financial Services Committee and Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.  And the day ended with a very productive meeting at the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB).

The lingering impact of Operation Choke Point (OCP) continues to affect independent ATM deployers (IADs) and was the main topic of conversation.  This is despite the DoJ’s (Department of Justice) public statements last year that the initiative has been terminated.  In fact, the morning of these meetings ATMIA received notice that a new flood of account terminations had just been announced by a major bank, ending long-standing relationships with a number of ATM operators. 

ATMIA members met with Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer to thank him for his work on H.R. 2706, the Financial Institution Customer Protection Act, and express their support for the measure – which is intended to end OCP and similar initiatives in the future.  Concerns were also expressed that additional efforts would be needed to ensure that regulators clearly communicate to banks that operating an ATM should not be considered a high-risk activity.

On the Senate side, ATMIA also gave support to S 2155, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, in meetings with the Policy Director for the Senate banking committee, and staff of Senators Thom Tillis and Tim Scott.  This bill would provide much-needed reforms and regulatory relief for community banks.

The growth of Reg E dispute fraud was brought to the attention of CFPB Chief of Staff and Public Affairs Director, Emma Doyle.  ATMIA requested that windows for consumer claims and ATM operator responses be tightened, in order to make fraud more difficult to perpetrate.  The association also supports current efforts to change CFPB leadership to a five-person commission.

“This was ATMIA’s first Washington, DC fly-in, and a great success,” says ATMIA U.S. & Americas executive director, David Tente.  “I think we will see even greater support on The Hill for a real ending to OCP and our efforts to rein-in Reg E fraud.  Also, we greatly appreciate the assistance of EFTA in setting up all of our meetings.”

A brief slideshow of meeting pictures is available on ATMIA’s YouTube channel and the ATM Tube webpage.