The National ATM Council is applauding the recent “decisive and welcome action” by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), which updated regulations that governed the banking of independent ATM businesses.
“While we are still studying the details of the FFIEC’s updates to the independent ATM section of its BSA/AML Examination Manual, on our initial review, the changes appear to be substantial, well founded and very positive in terms of acknowledging that bank-sponsored independent ATM companies are not categorically high-risk accounts, despite the fact that we are, by definition, ‘cash-intensive’ businesses,” said George Sarantopoulos, NAC Board Chair and CEO of the Brooklyn-based Access One Solutions.
He added: “NAC has worked diligently for a number of years with Congress and the bank regulators, seeking restoration of reasonable access to essential banking services for our nation’s independent ATM operators, and this latest FFIEC action appears to represent the fruits of that labor. This is an exceptionally good thing, not only for the nation’s independent ATM entrepreneurs, who require bank accounts to operate, but also for the millions of Americans who rely daily upon ATMs for convenient and essential access to cash.”
Mike Powell, Chair of NAC’s Governmental Affairs Committee, went on to thank the “excellent bipartisan leadership” of Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.), who “helped bring this issue, and the urgent need for corrective action, to the full attention of the FFIEC and its consitutent agenices.
Added NAC Executive Director Bruce Renard: “It has taken a truly broad and diverse collection of independent ATM deployers and suppliers from across the U.S., working together diligently for years, to have the federal government correct the prior mischaracterizations and stigma fostered by the former ATM-related provisions of the FFIEC Examination Manual. NAC and ATM Nation offer their heartfelt thanks and gratitude to these industry leaders for their dedication and perseverance that have led to this latest FFIEC Examination Manual update.”
