12 U.S.C. § 248a — Pricing of services

(a) Publication of pricing principles and proposed schedule of fees: By the first day of the sixth month after March 31, 1980, the Board had to publish, for public comment, pricing principles and a proposed fee schedule for Federal Reserve bank services to depository institutions. By the first day of the eighteenth month after that date, the Board had to start using a fee schedule based on those principles. (b) Covered services: The fee schedule must cover: (1) currency and coin services; (2) check clearing and collection; (3) wire transfers; (4) automated clearinghouse services; (5) settlement services; (6) securities safekeeping; (7) Federal Reserve float; and (8) any new services the Fed offers, including electronic payment transfers. (c) Criteria applicable: The fee schedule must follow these principles: (1) every covered service must have an explicit price; (2) every covered service must be available to nonmember banks at the same prices as member banks, though nonmembers can be held to the same other terms — like keeping enough balances for clearing — that apply to members; (3) over time, fees must reflect all direct and indirect costs of providing the service, including interest on items credited before they're actually collected, overhead, and a stand-in for the taxes and profit a private business would have needed to charge — while still considering competition and keeping adequate nationwide service; and (4) interest on items credited before collection is charged at the current Fed funds market rate. (d) Budgetary consequences of decline in volume of services: The Board must cut Reserve banks' operating budgets to match any real or expected drop in service volume. All the money saved this way goes to the U.S. Treasury. (e) Parity in clearing: Any depository institution can accept deposits of transaction-account items from other depository institutions, or from a Federal Reserve bank office, no matter what federal or state law limits the number or location of depository institutions.