November 01, 2010

Board approves fee schedule for Federal Reserve Bank priced services

For immediate release

The Federal Reserve Board on Monday announced the approval of fee schedules, effective January 3, 2011, for payment services the Federal Reserve Banks provide to depository institutions (priced services). The Board has also approved maintaining the current earnings credit rate on clearing balances.

The Reserve Banks project that they will recover 102.0 percent of their priced services costs in 2011. The Reserve Banks expect to recover all of their actual and imputed expenses, and earn a profit that is above their targeted return on equity. Overall, the price level for Federal Reserve priced services will decrease about 3 percent in 2011 from 2010. Because an increasing proportion of checks collected through the Reserve Banks will be presented electronically, the effective fees paid to collect checks using the Reserve Banks' Check 21 services are expected to decline, on average, 14 percent. The average fee paid by depository institutions to return a check electronically will decline 20 percent. In addition, the fees for the Reserve Banks' FedACH® service, Fedwire® Funds and National Settlement Services, and Fedwire® Securities Service will increase approximately 3 percent.

The 2011 fee schedule for each of the priced services, except the check service, is included in the attached Federal Register notice. Fee schedules for all priced services will be available on the Federal Reserve Banks' financial services website at www.frbservices.org.

In addition, the Board approved the 2011 private-sector adjustment factor (PSAF) for Reserve Bank priced services of $39.5 million. The PSAF is an allowance for income taxes and other imputed expenses that would have been paid and profits that would have been earned if the Reserve Banks' priced services were provided by a private business. The Monetary Control Act of 1980 requires that the Federal Reserve establish fees to recover the costs of providing priced services, including the PSAF, over the long run, to promote competition between the Reserve Banks and private-sector service providers.

The Board's notice is attached.

Federal Register notice: HTML | 254 KB PDF

Last Update: November 01, 2010