[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 11832]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               H.R. 4367

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. DON YOUNG

                               of alaska

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 19, 2012

  Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I rise to support H.R. 4367, a bill 
which would remove the current requirement under the Electronic Funds 
Transfer Act that ATM machines have a physical label indicating the fee 
charge. Currently, ATM machines have both a physical posted 
notification and an on-screen prompt that inform the customer of any 
fees prior to the withdrawal or transfer of money. These fees are often 
used to offset the cost of a patron withdrawing money from an ATM owned 
by another financial institution.
  H.R. 4367 is an essential piece of legislation which prevents greed-
motivated individuals from fraudulently removing the physical fee 
notification and then filing frivolous lawsuits on financial 
institutions for not having the physical notification posted. This 
fraud forces financial institutions to waste huge amounts of money on 
legal fees, some as much as $500,000, merely to defend frivolous 
lawsuits. Unfortunately, the cost of this litigation forces banks to 
raise their ATM fees to deal with the action of a few unscrupulous 
individuals exploiting a legal loophole.
  Today, virtually all ATM machines display on-screen notifications of 
a transfer fee, prior to allowing the customer to withdraw money. 
Altering the law so that banks are only required to post an on-screen 
fee notification will help them avoid expensive, unjust, and 
unnecessary lawsuits. H.R. 4367 is an essential and necessary part of 
modernizing our financial regulations to fit the needs of the digital 
world. Please know that I firmly support H.R. 4367 and would have voted 
in favor of it.

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