Media Release Number 2012-12: The Reserve Bank’s Payments System Board is initiating a public consultation on a draft variation to the Access Regime for the ATM System. The proposed variation will provide the Reserve Bank with greater flexibility to grant exemptions for ATM arrangements that would otherwise be counter to the interchange fee provisions of the Access Regime. It is anticipated that this flexibility could be used to facilitate the recently announced scheme to reduce the sizeable expenditure on ATM fees by residents of very remote Indigenous communities. Elements of this scheme might otherwise be prohibited under the Access Regime. Under the proposed variation, the Bank would need to be satisfied that an ATM arrangement was appropriate, having regard to the public interest and other factors set out in the Access Regime, before an exemption could be granted.