Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

The Federal Reserve Board on Monday announced the approval of fee schedules, effective January 3, 2012, 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 100.8 percent of their priced services costs in 2012. Overall, the price level for Reserve Bank priced services will increase about 4 percent in 2012 from 2011. The effective average fee paid to collect checks using the Reserve Banks' Check 21 services is expected to increase 1 percent, while the effective average fee to return a check electronically will decrease approximately 16 percent.  In addition, the aggregate effective fees for the Reserve Banks' FedACH^® service, Fedwire^® Funds and National Settlement Services, and Fedwire^® Securities Service will increase nearly 5 percent. In addition, the Board approved modest changes to electronic access fees. 

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 FRBservices.org.

Lastly, the Board approved the 2012 private-sector adjustment factor (PSAF) of $29.9 million for Reserve Bank priced services. 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.

For media inquiries, call 202-452-2955.

Federal Register notice: HTML | PDF