Price changes set to take effect Jan. 2 for priced services the Federal Reserve Banks provide to banks and credit unions will result in a 1.8% average price increase for established, mature services, the Fed Board said in a release Friday.
The 2024 pricing changes affect services such as check clearing, automated clearinghouse (ACH) transactions, and wholesale payment and settlement services, the Fed said.
However, it said the Reserve Banks will maintain the previous year’s fee schedule for the FedNow Service, inclusive of discounts to the monthly participation fee and for customer credit transfers under a threshold of 2,500 per month. These discounts, it said, will support financial institution testing and validation of 24×7 instant payments processing capabilities.
“Additionally, to support initial onboarding, the Reserve Banks will continue to discount certain FedLine® Solutions fees. New FedLine Advantage® channel connections or upgrades from existing FedLine Solutions to FedLine Advantage will be discounted to $0.00 for a rolling 12-month period following initiation,” according to a notice slated for publication in the Federal Register.
Details on the pricing changes are provided on FRBServices.org, a site maintained by the Federal Reserve Banks. Here, banks and credit unions can link to 2024 pricing in six categories of services: accounting services, check services, FedACH services, FedCash services, FedLine Solutions, and Fedwire Funds Services and National Settlement Service (NSS). Another area of the site gives both 2023 and 2024 service fees.
The Fed on Friday also announced a private-sector adjustment factor (PSAF) for 2024 of $29.2 million. The PSAF is set under a 1980 Monetary Control Act requirement that the fees for the Fed’s priced services be set to recover, over the long run, all direct and indirect costs and imputed costs, including financing costs, taxes, and certain other expenses, as well as the return on equity (profit) that would have been earned if a private-sector business provided the services. In its notice, it said the imputed costs and imputed profit are collectively referred to as the private-sector adjustment factor (PSAF).