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Senate rejects amendment to bar cooperative fee agreements in ATM bill; committee language retained
Summary
After extended debate, the Senate rejected a sponsor amendment to remove committee language permitting cooperative ATM groups to set a uniform fee; the underlying Automated Teller Machine bill passed as amended. Supporters said the change formalizes existing cooperative practice; opponents raised consumer choice and potential antitrust concerns.
Senators spent an extended portion of the Feb. 21 floor session debating whether cooperative agreements among financial institutions should be able to fix the fee that member institutions charge ATM users. The dispute played out on Senate Bill 162, an Automated Teller Machine bill that addressed ATM safety and several technical items and carried a committee amendment affecting fee‑setting by shared ATM groups.
Senator David Watson, sponsor of the floor amendment seeking to delete the committee language, argued the amendment would restore the department bill and preserve the current statutory prohibition on cooperative agreements that restrict an individual institution’s ability to set fees. "The current law reads, an agreement to share automatic tellers may not prohibit,…
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