ATMIA has growing concerns that competition between payment networks is eroding due to the unintended consequences of the Durbin Amendment – both with how it was implemented and how it impacts EMV migration in the U.S.

Today, the setting of network fees and routing decisions are essentially confined within the relationships between networks and issuers, which works to limit competition. ATMIA recommends adding language to Reg II, prohibiting restrictions on ATM operator routing selection, between the networks enabled on an issuers debit card. This would create new competition between networks for routing selection by those operators and result in downward pressure on network fees.

ATMIA U.S. Executive Director, David Tente, and several ATMIA U.S. Board members met with the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, DC on July 22nd. Executive management for the Retail Payments Section of the Reserve Bank Operations and Payments Systems Division were present, along with legal counsel and one of their senior economists.

"This was a rare opportunity to help the Fed Board better understand the workings of our industry and the shifting of the competitive landscape for regional ATM networks," said Tente. "The paper being released today represents our efforts to frame this issue in a way that will help others in the payments industry to better understand why it is so important."