Federal Reserve Bank Services

AGENCY:

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) has approved the private sector adjustment factor (PSAF) for 2016 of $13.1 million and the 2016 fee schedules for Federal Reserve priced services and electronic access. These actions were taken in accordance with the Monetary Control Act of 1980, which requires that, over the long run, fees for Federal Reserve priced services be established on the basis of all direct and indirect costs, including the PSAF.

DATES:

The new fee schedules become effective January 1, 2016.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

For questions regarding the fee schedules: Susan V. Foley, Senior Associate Director, (202) 452-3596; Slavea A. Assenova, Financial Services Analyst, (202) 452-2087, Division of Reserve Bank Operations and Payment Systems. For questions regarding the PSAF: Gregory L. Evans, Deputy Associate Director, (202) 452-3945; Lawrence Mize, Deputy Associate Director, (202) 452-5232; Manuel Garcia, Senior Financial Analyst, (202) 452-3480, Division of Reserve Bank Operations and Payment Systems. For users of Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) only, please call (202) 263-4869. Copies of the 2016 fee schedules for the check service are available from the Board, the Federal Reserve Banks, or the Reserve Banks' financial services Web site at www.frbservices.org.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Private Sector Adjustment Factor, Priced Services Cost Recovery, and Overview of 2016 Price Changes

A. Overview—Each year, as required by the Monetary Control Act of 1980, the Reserve Banks set fees for priced services provided to depository institutions. These fees are 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 business firm provided the services. The imputed costs and imputed profit are collectively referred to as the PSAF. From 2005 through 2014, the Reserve Banks recovered 102.9 percent of their total expenses (including imputed costs) and targeted after-tax profits or return on equity (ROE) for providing priced services.

Table 1 summarizes 2014 actual, 2015 estimated, and 2016 budgeted cost-recovery rates for all priced services. Cost recovery is estimated to be 104.1 percent in 2015 and budgeted to be 101.9 percent in 2016.

Table 2 provides an overview of cost-recovery performance for the ten-year period from 2005 to 2014, 2014 actual, 2015 budget, 2015 estimate, and 2016 budget by priced service.

1. 2015 Estimated Performance—The Reserve Banks estimate that they will recover 104.1 percent of the costs of providing priced services in 2015, including total expense and targeted ROE, compared with a 2015 budgeted recovery rate of 102.0 percent, as shown in table 2. Overall, the Reserve Banks estimate that they will fully recover actual and imputed costs and earn net income of $22.6 million, compared with the targeted ROE of $5.6 million. The Reserve Banks estimate that all services will achieve full cost recovery, despite higher-than-budgeted pension expenses. Greater-than-expected check volume processed by the Reserve Banks has been the single most significant factor influencing priced services cost recovery.

2. 2016 Private-Sector Adjustment Factor—The 2016 PSAF for Reserve Bank priced services is $13.1 million. This amount represents a decrease of $4.9 million from the 2015 PSAF of $18.0 million. This decrease is primarily the result of a reduction in the assets to be financed on the imputed priced-services balance sheet and an associated decline in the cost of debt and equity.

3. 2016 Projected Performance—The Reserve Banks project a priced services cost-recovery rate of 101.9 percent in 2016, with net income of $12.0 million, compared with a targeted ROE of $4.1 million. The Reserve Banks project that the check service and the Fedwire® Funds and National Settlement Service will fully recover their costs; however, the Reserve Banks project that the FedACH® Service and the Fedwire Securities Service will not achieve full cost recovery because of investment costs associated with multiyear technology initiatives to modernize their processing platforms. These investments are expected to enhance efficiency, the overall quality of operations, and the Reserve Banks' ability to offer additional services to depository institutions.

The primary risks to the Reserve Banks' ability to achieve their targeted cost-recovery rates are unanticipated volume and revenue reductions and the potential for cost overruns with the technology modernization initiatives. In light of these risks, the Reserve Banks will continue to refine their business and operational strategies to manage operating costs, to increase product revenue, and to capitalize on efficiencies gained from technology initiatives.

4. 2016 Pricing—The following summarizes the Reserve Banks' changes in fee schedules for priced services in 2016:

Check

• The Reserve Banks will increase the per-item fee for FedReturn® items that are qualified to the Reserve Bank in instances in which the bank of first deposit cannot be identified from $8 to $15.
• The Reserve Banks will increase the fees for traditional paper check forward and return collection deposits. The Reserve Banks will increase the per-item fee for paper forward deposits from $2.00 to $2.50 and the per-item fee for each unencoded item from $1.00 to $1.50. The Reserve Banks will increase the per-item fee for paper return-collection deposits from $5.00 to $5.50 and the per-item fee for unqualified paper returns from $7.00 to $7.50. The Reserve Banks will discontinue image retrievals by fax for both incoming and outgoing retrievals within FedImage® Services.

• The Reserve Banks will introduce Select Mixed Level 3 to the Select Mixed image cash letter (ICL) product. The new level will have a daily fee of $3,000 and per-item fees from $0.002 to $0.350.

• The Reserve Banks will eliminate the FedForward® Fine Sort (ICL) product in January 2017 as part of the Reserve Banks' effort to reflect today's electronic check processing environment in their check fee schedule. To encourage depositors to shift volume from the fine-sort products to mixed deposit options in advance of this elimination, the Reserve Banks will increase the FedForward Fine Sort ICL product per-item fees at the 9 p.m., 1 a.m., and 5 a.m. deadlines by $0.002, $0.004, and $0.006, respectively. The Reserve Banks will increase the FedForward Deferred Fine Sort ICL product per-item fees at the 1 a.m., 5 a.m., and 10 a.m. deadlines by $0.004, $0.006, and $0.008, respectively.

• In addition to the above changes, the Reserve Banks plan to announce further modifications to the check fee schedule during 2016 that reflect the efficiencies of today's electronic check processing environment. The new schedule may include elimination of certain sorted deposit options and modifications to the current endpoint-based tiered pricing structure.

FedACH

• The Reserve Banks will increase the minimum monthly fee for forward origination from $35 to $45.

• The Reserve Banks will increase the minimum monthly fee for receipt from $25 to $35.

• The Reserve Banks will eliminate the large file and small file per-item fees and introduce a single base fee of $0.0032 for all origination files. The Reserve Banks will provide a discount of $0.0005 for origination volume between 750,000 to 1,500,000 items per month and $0.0007 for origination volume greater than 1,500,000 items per month.
• The Reserve Banks will lower the top-tier volume origination discount level based on monthly receipt volume from 17,500,000 to 15,000,000 items per month, while maintaining the current discount amounts.

• The Reserve Banks will increase the forward item receipt fee from $0.0025 to $0.0032 per item, while keeping the return item receipt fee at $0.0075 per item.
• The Reserve Banks will change the volume-based receipt discount structure to encourage additional receipt volume. The changes will include a decrease in the first volume-based discount by 250,000 items per month to 750,001 items a month, the introduction of a new volume-based discount tier for volume between 1,500,001 and 2,500,000 items per month, and an increase for all existing volume-based receipt discounts by $0.0007.

• The Reserve Banks will implement a $20 monthly billing discount for any customer that pays the origination minimum fee, subscribes to a FedLine Web® Plus or higher package, and subscribes to either FedACH RDFI Alert, FedACH Risk® Origination Monitoring, or FedPayments® Reporter. In addition to the above changes, the Reserve Banks plan to reassess the FedGlobal® ACH fee schedule during 2016.

Fedwire Funds and National Settlement

• The Reserve Banks will increase the Tier 1 per-item pre-incentive fee from $0.73 to $0.79 per transaction, increase the Tier 3 per-item pre-incentive fee from $0.150 to $0.155 per transaction, and leave Tier 2 per-item pre-incentive fees unchanged.

• The Reserve Banks will increase the surcharge for offline transactions from $50 to $55. The Reserve Banks will increase the monthly participation fee from $90 to $95.

Fedwire Securities and National Settlement Services

• The Reserve Banks will keep prices at existing levels for the priced Fedwire Securities and National Settlement Services.

FedLine® Access Solutions

• The Reserve Banks will increase the fee for the FedLine Exchange subscriber pack by $5 per month. The Reserve Banks will keep all other existing FedLine fees unchanged.

• The Reserve Banks will introduce a 256K/T1 legacy router surcharge of $5,000 per month to encourage customers to migrate to more efficient access solutions.

• The Reserve Banks will introduce a fee for customers that choose to implement FedLine using a customized (nonstandard) router setup. The fee will vary from $2,500 to $5,000 based on the complexity of the setup.
• The Reserve Banks will include two virtual private network (VPN) devices in the FedLine Direct® Premier package (rather than one) to align better with the FedLine Advantage® Premier package.
• Depository institutions with more than 250 Fedwire transactions per month, or more than one routing number, will only have access to the FedPayments Manager Import/Export (FPM) tool via FedLine Advantage Premier. Affected customers will experience a fee increase ranging from $15 to $75 per month to upgrade to FedLine Advantage Premier.

5. 2016 Price Index—Figure 1 compares indexes of fees for the Reserve Banks' priced services with the GDP price index. The price index for Reserve Bank priced services is projected to increase approximately 1 percent in 2016 from the 2015 level. The price index for Check 21 services is projected to increase less than 1 percent. The price index for the FedACH Service is projected to decrease nearly 1 percent. The price index for the Fedwire Funds and National Settlement Services is projected to increase approximately 5 percent. The price index for the Fedwire Securities Services is projected to decrease nearly 1 percent. For the period 2006 to 2015, the price index for total priced services is expected to decrease 26 percent.

B. Private Sector Adjustment Factor—The imputed debt financing costs, targeted ROE, and effective tax rate are based on a U.S. publicly traded firm market model. The method for calculating the financing costs in the PSAF requires determining the appropriate imputed levels of debt and equity and then applying the applicable financing rates. In this process, a pro forma balance sheet using estimated assets and liabilities associated with the Reserve Banks' priced services is developed, and the remaining elements that would exist are imputed as if these priced services were provided by a private business firm. The same generally accepted accounting principles that apply to commercial-entity financial statements apply to the relevant elements in the priced services pro forma financial statements.

The portion of Federal Reserve assets that will be used to provide priced services during the coming year is determined using information about actual assets and projected disposals and acquisitions. The priced portion of these assets is determined based on the allocation of depreciation and amortization expenses of each asset class. The priced portion of actual Federal Reserve liabilities consists of postemployment and postretirement benefits, accounts payable, and other liabilities. The priced portion of the actual net pension asset or liability is also included on the balance sheet.

The equity financing rate is the targeted ROE produced by the capital asset pricing model (CAPM). In the CAPM, the required rate of return on a firm's equity is equal to the return on a risk-free asset plus a market risk premium. The risk-free rate is based on the three-month Treasury bill; the beta is assumed to be equal to 1.0, which approximates the risk of the market as a whole; and the market risk premium is based on the monthly returns in excess of the risk-free rate over the most recent 40 years. The resulting ROE reflects the return a shareholder would expect when investing in a private business firm.

For simplicity, given that federal corporate income tax rates are graduated, state income tax rates vary, and various credits and deductions can apply, an actual income tax expense is not explicitly calculated for Reserve Bank priced services. Instead, the Board targets a pretax ROE that would provide sufficient income to fulfill the priced services' imputed income tax obligations. To the extent that performance results are greater or less than the targeted ROE, income taxes are adjusted using the effective tax rate.

Capital structure. The capital structure is imputed based on the imputed funding need (assets less liabilities), subject to minimum equity constraints. Short-term debt is imputed to fund the imputed short-term funding need. Long-term debt and equity are imputed to meet the priced services long-term funding need at a ratio based on the capital structure of the U.S. publicly traded firm market. The level of equity must meet the minimum equity constraints, which follow the FDIC requirements for a well-capitalized institution. The priced services must maintain equity of at least 5 percent of total assets and 10 percent of risk-weighted assets. Any equity imputed that exceeds the amount needed to fund the priced services' assets and meet the minimum equity constraints is offset by a reduction in imputed long-term debt. When imputed equity is larger than what can be offset by imputed debt, the excess is imputed as investments in Treasury securities; income imputed on these investments reduces the PSAF.

Application of the Payment System Risk (PSR) Policy to the Fedwire Services. The Board's PSR policy reflects the new international standards for financial market infrastructures (FMIs) developed by the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems and the Technical Committee of the International Organization of Securities Commissions in the Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures. The revised policy retains the expectation that the Fedwire Services meet or exceed the applicable risk-management standards. Principle 15 states that an FMI should identify, monitor, and manage general business risk and hold sufficient liquid net assets funded by equity to cover potential general business losses so that it can continue operations and services as a going concern if those losses materialize. Further, liquid net assets should at all times be sufficient to ensure a recovery or orderly wind-down of critical operations and services. The Fedwire Services do not face the risk that a business shock would cause the service to wind down in a disorderly manner and disrupt the stability of the financial system. In order to foster competition with private-sector FMIs, however, the Reserve Banks' priced services will hold six months of the Fedwire Funds Service's current operating expenses as liquid financial assets and equity on the pro forma balance sheet. Current operating expenses are defined as normal business operating expenses on the income statement less depreciation, amortization, taxes, and interest on debt. The Fedwire Funds Service's six months of current operating expenses are computed based on its preliminary 2016 budget at $53.8 million. In 2016, $51.1 million of equity was imputed to meet the FDIC capital requirements; however, an additional $2.7 million of equity was imputed to meet the PSR policy requirement. The additional equity is solely allocated to Fedwire Funds Service.

Effective tax rate. Like the imputed capital structure, the effective tax rate is calculated based on data from U.S. publicly traded firms. The tax rate is the mean of the weighted average rates of the U.S. publicly traded firm market over the past 5 years.

Debt and equity financing. The imputed short- and long-term debt financing rates are derived from the nonfinancial commercial paper rates from the Federal Reserve Board's H.15 Selected Interest Rates release (AA and A2/P2) and the annual Merrill Lynch Corporate & High Yield Index rate, respectively. The rates for debt and equity financing are applied to the priced services estimated imputed short-term debt, long-term debt, and equity needed to finance short- and long-term assets and meet equity requirements.

The decrease in the 2016 PSAF is primarily due to lower financing costs as a result of fewer priced services assets to be financed than in 2015. Debt and equity financing rates declined and less debt and equity was imputed to fund priced services assets.

Projected 2016 Federal Reserve priced-services assets, reflected in table 3, have decreased $486.3 million from 2015. This reduction is primarily due to a $589.0 million decrease in the balance of imputed investments in federal funds, driven by recent changes in the PSR policy resulting in a decrease in daily float balances and a corresponding effect on imputed investments. The reduction is offset by an increase of $170.0 million from 2015 in items in process of collection. As shown in table 3, imputed equity for 2016 is $53.8 million, a decrease of $18.1 million from the equity imputed for 2015. In accordance with FAS 158 [ASC 715], this amount includes an accumulated other comprehensive loss of $666.1 million.

Table 4 reflects the portion of short- and long-term assets that must be financed with actual or imputed liabilities and equity. Debt and equity imputed to fund the 2016 priced services assets within the observed market leverage ratio produced an equity level that did not meet the FDIC minimum equity requirements. As a result, additional equity was imputed to meet the FDIC requirements, and imputed long-term debt was reduced. The ratio of capital to risk-weighted assets exceeds the required 10 percent of risk-weighted assets and equity exceeds 5 percent of total assets (table 6). In 2015, long-term debt and equity was imputed to meet the asset funding requirements and reflects the leverage ratio observed in the market; additional equity of $7.6 million was required (table 5) to meet the market leverage ratio.

Table 5 shows the derivation of the 2016 and 2015 PSAF. Financing costs for 2016 are $6.1 million lower than in 2015. In addition to the decline in the levels of debt and equity mentioned above, the cost of equity declined 3 basis points. The reduced equity balance and the lower cost of equity result in a pretax ROE that is $2.0 million lower than the 2015 pretax ROE. Imputed sales taxes declined to $2.8 million in 2016 from $3.3 million in 2015. The priced services portion of the Board's expenses increased $1.7 million to $5.0 million in 2016 from $3.3 million in 2015. The effective income tax rate used in 2016 decreased to 21.6 percent from 22.4 percent in 2015.

C. Check Service—Table 7 shows the 2014 actual, 2015 estimated, and 2016 budgeted cost-recovery performance for the commercial check service.

1. 2015 Estimate—The Reserve Banks estimate that the check service will recover 110.1 percent of total expenses and targeted ROE, compared with a 2015 final budgeted recovery rate of 105.2 percent. Greater-than-expected check volumes processed by the Reserve Banks and lower-than-expected costs have influenced significantly the check services cost recovery.

The decline in Reserve Bank check volume, which is attributable to the decline in the number of checks written generally, was not as great as anticipated. Through August, total forward check volume is 4.6 percent lower and total return check volume is 11.9 percent lower-than for the same period last year. For full-year 2015, the Reserve Banks estimate that their total forward check volume will decline 5.6 percent (compared with a budgeted decline of nearly 7 percent) and their total return check volume will decline 11.6 percent (compared with a budgeted decline of about 14 percent) from 2014 levels.

2. 2016 Pricing—The Reserve Banks expect the check service to recover 106.7 percent of total expenses and targeted ROE in 2016. The Reserve Banks project revenue to be $149.9 million, a decline of 5.9 percent from the 2015 estimate. This decline is driven largely by projected reductions in both forward check and return check volume. The Reserve Banks estimate that total Reserve Bank forward check volumes will decline 6.2 percent, to 5.1 billion, and return check volumes will decline 12.7 percent to 28.5 million in 2016. Total expenses for the check service are projected to be $139.1 million, a decline of 2.5 percent from 2015.

The Reserve Banks will increase the per-item fee for FedReturn items that are qualified to the Reserve Bank in instances in which the bank of first deposit cannot be identified from $8 to $15.

The Reserve Banks will increase the fees for traditional paper check forward and return collection deposits. The Reserve Banks will increase the per-item fee for paper forward deposits from $2.00 to $2.50 and the per-item fee for each unencoded item from $1.00 to $1.50. The Reserve Banks will increase the per-item fee for paper return collection deposits from $5.00 to $5.50 as well as the per-item fee for unqualified paper returns from $7.00 to $7.50. The Reserve Banks will discontinue image retrievals by fax for both incoming and outgoing retrievals within FedImage Services.

The Reserve Banks will introduce Select Mixed Level 3 tier to the Select Mixed image cash letter (ICL) product. The new level will have a daily fee of $3,000 and per-item fees from $0.002 to $0.350, as seen in table 8.

The Reserve Banks will eliminate the FedForward Fine Sort ICL product in January 2017 as part of the Reserve Banks effort to reflect today's electronic check processing environment in their check fee schedule. To encourage depositors to shift volume from the fine-sort products to mixed deposit options in advance of this elimination, the Reserve Banks will increase the FedForward Fine Sort ICL product per-item fees at the 9 p.m., 1 a.m., and 5 a.m. deadlines by $0.002, $0.004, and $0.006, an average increase of 22.7 percent. The Reserve Banks will increase the FedForward Deferred Fine Sort ICL product per-item fees at the 1 a.m., 5 a.m., and 10 a.m. deadlines by $0.004, $0.006, and $0.008, an average increase of 48.8 percent. The per item fees for each deadline are listed in table 9.

The Reserve Banks estimate that the price changes will result in a 0.5 percent average price increase for check customers. In addition to the above changes, the Reserve Banks plan to announce further modifications to the check fee schedule during 2016 that reflect the efficiencies of today's electronic check processing environment. The new schedule may include elimination of certain sorted deposit options and modifications to the current endpoint-based tiered pricing structure.

Risks to the Reserve Banks' ability to achieve budgeted 2016 cost recovery for the check service include lower-than-expected check volume due to reductions in check writing overall and competition from correspondent banks, aggregators, and direct exchanges, which will result in lower-than-anticipated revenue.

D. FedACH Service—Table 10 shows the 2014 actual, 2015 estimate, and 2016 budgeted cost-recovery performance for the commercial FedACH service.

1. 2015 Estimate—The Reserve Banks estimate that the FedACH service will recover 100.0 percent of total expenses and targeted ROE, compared with a 2015 final budgeted recovery rate of 100.4 percent. Through August, FedACH commercial origination and receipt volume was 5.1 percent higher-than the same period last year. For full-year 2015 the Reserve Banks estimate that FedACH commercial origination and receipt volume will increase 5.5 percent, compared with a budgeted increase of 3.5 percent.

2. 2016 Pricing—The Reserve Banks expect the FedACH service to recover 99.0 percent of total expenses and targeted ROE in 2016. FedACH commercial origination and receipt volume is projected to grow 4.5 percent contributing to an increase of $4.4 million in total revenue from the 2015 estimate. Total expenses are budgeted to increase $7.2 million from 2015 budgeted expenses of $122.6 million, primarily because of costs associated with the development of a new FedACH technology platform.

The Reserve Banks will increase the minimum monthly fee for forward origination from $35 to $45 and the minimum monthly fee for receipt from $25 to $35.

The Reserve Banks will eliminate large- and small-file per-item origination fees and introduce a single base fee of $0.0032 for all origination files with a discount of $0.0005 for origination volume between 750,000 to 1,500,000 items per month and $0.0007 for origination volume greater than 1,500,000 items per month. The Reserve Banks will lower the top-tier volume origination discount level based on monthly receipt volume from 17,500,000 to 15,000,000 items per month, while maintaining the current discount amounts.

The Reserve Banks will increase the forward item receipt fee from $0.0025 to $0.0032 per item, while keeping the return item receipt fee at $0.0075 per item. The Reserve Banks will change the volume-based receipt discount structure to encourage additional receipt volume. The changes will include a decrease in the first volume-based discount by 250,000 items per month to 750,001 items a month, the introduction of a new volume-based discount tier for volume between 1,500,001 and 2,500,000 items per month, and an increase for all existing volume-based receipt discounts by $0.0007 as seen in table 11.

The Reserve Banks will implement a $20 monthly billing discount for any customer that pays the origination minimum fee, subscribes to a FedLine Web Plus or higher package, and subscribes to either FedACH RDFI Alert, FedACH Risk Origination Monitoring, or FedPayments Reporter.

The Reserve Banks estimate that the price changes will result in a 6.5 percent average price increase for FedACH customers. In addition to the above changes, the Reserve Banks plan to reassess the FedGlobal ACH fee schedule during 2016.

The primary risks to the Reserve Banks' ability to achieve budgeted 2016 cost recovery for the FedACH service are cost overruns associated with unanticipated problems related to efforts to modernize the FedACH processing platform and higher-than-expected support and overhead costs. Other risks include lower-than-expected volume and associated revenue due to unanticipated mergers and acquisitions and loss of market share due to direct exchanges and a shift of volume to the private-sector operator.

E. Fedwire Funds and National Settlement Services—Table 12 shows the 2014 actual, 2015 estimate, and 2016 budgeted cost-recovery performance for the Fedwire Funds and National Settlement Services.

1. 2015 Estimate—The Reserve Banks estimate that the Fedwire Funds and National Settlement Services will recover 100.7 percent of total expenses and targeted ROE, equal to the final budgeted recovery rate. Through August, Fedwire Funds Service online volume was 6.9 percent higher than for the same period last year. For full-year 2015, the Reserve Banks estimate Fedwire Funds Service online volume to increase 4.0 percent from 2014 levels, compared with the 3.2 percent volume decrease that had been budgeted. The Reserve Banks do not expect the strong volume growth in late 2014 and early 2015 to continue at that level through year-end. Through August, National Settlement Service settlement file volume was 7.1 percent lower than for the same period last year, and settlement entry volume was 19.3 percent lower. For the full year, the Reserve Banks estimate that settlement file volume will decrease 5.9 percent (compared with a 1 percent budgeted decrease) and settlement entry volume will decrease 15.6 percent from 2014 levels (compared with a budgeted 7.2 percent decrease).

2. 2016 Pricing—The Reserve Banks expect the Fedwire Funds Service to recover 100.0 percent of total expenses and targeted ROE. Revenue is projected to be $121.4 million, an increase of 5.5 percent from the 2015 estimate. The Reserve Banks project total expenses to be $7.4 million higher than the 2015 estimate. The Reserve Banks expect volume to grow 1.5 percent in 2016.

The Reserve Banks will adjust the incentive pricing fees for the Fedwire Funds Service by increasing the Tier 1 per item pre-incentive fee (the fee before volume discounts are applied) from $0.73 to $0.79 and increasing the Tier 3 per item pre-incentive fee from $0.150 to $0.155. The Reserve Banks will keep the Tier 2 per-item pre-incentive fee unchanged.

The Reserve Banks will increase the surcharge for offline transactions from $50 to $55. In addition, the Reserve Banks will increase the monthly participation fee from $90 to $95.

The Reserve Banks estimate that the price changes will result in a 5.8 percent average price increase for Fedwire Funds customers.

The Reserve Banks will not change National Settlement Service fees for 2016. The Reserve Banks' Fedwire Funds and National Settlement Services fees are consistent with their multiyear strategy to minimize pricing volatility while undertaking ongoing technology upgrades and projects to further strengthen operational resiliency. The Reserve Banks recently completed a significant milestone in the Fedwire Funds portion of its modernization initiative by migrating its back-end settlement system from a mainframe to a distributed platform, although key work to complete the initiative remains in progress.

The primary risk to the Reserve Banks' ability to achieve budgeted 2016 cost recovery for these services is cost overruns from unanticipated problems with completing the final stages of complex technology programs.

F. Fedwire Securities Service—Table 13 shows the 2014 actual, 2015 estimate, and 2016 budgeted cost recovery performance for the Fedwire Securities Service.

1. 2015 Estimate—The Reserve Banks estimate that the Fedwire Securities Service will recover 105.7 percent of total expenses and targeted ROE, compared with a 2015 final budgeted recovery rate of 97.5 percent. The higher-than-expected cost recovery is primarily due to not spending contingency funds that were budgeted for the Fedwire Modernization Program. Increased revenues generated from higher-than-expected volumes from online agency transfers and account maintenance also increased cost recovery.

Through August, Fedwire Securities Service online volume was 8.0 percent lower than during the same period last year. For full-year 2015, the Reserve Banks estimate Fedwire Securities Service online volume will decline 5.4 percent from 2014 levels, compared with a budgeted decline of 12.9 percent. The higher-than-expected online agency transfer volume resulted from the continued low interest-rate environment, which has supported mortgage underwriting activity and mortgage-backed securities issuance, and is generally associated with increased online agency transfer activity over the Fedwire Securities Service. Through August, account maintenance volume was 9.1 percent lower than during the same period last year. For the full year, the Reserve Banks estimate that account maintenance volume will decline 8.4 percent over 2014 levels, compared with a budgeted decline of 14.1 percent. The higher account maintenance volume is the result of conservative estimates for customer account closures that have not materialized.

2. 2016 Pricing—The Reserve Banks expect the Fedwire Securities Service to recover 98.7 percent of total expenses and targeted ROE in 2016. The Reserve Banks project that 2016 revenue will decrease by $1.5 million and expenses will increase by $0.4 million, compared with 2015 estimates.

The Reserve Banks project that online transfer activity will decline 7.7 percent in 2016, the number of accounts maintained will decrease 8.5 percent, and the number of agency securities maintained will decrease 3.3 percent. The projected decline in account maintenance activity reflects customer closures of empty accounts to avoid unnecessary expenses and increased competition in collateral management services. The Reserve Banks project a decrease in online transfers as gradually increasing interest rates lead to less mortgage refinancing, and, in turn, reduce issuances of mortgage-backed securities. The reduction in agency debt issuance reflects a reduction in government-sponsored enterprise portfolios, as required by the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, leading to a reduced funding need for new debt issuance. New settlement logic introduced by the Fixed Income Clearing Corporation in late 2015 is also expected to reduce the number of agency debt transfers over the Fedwire Securities Service.

Expenses are budgeted to remain approximately the same as 2015 estimates, reflecting higher expected operating costs offset by increased reimbursements from Treasury for fiscal agency services. Higher operating costs in 2016 reflect the full-year impact of the completion of a multiyear technology modernization initiative and the advancement of new initiatives to improve resiliency and operational functionality.

The Reserve Banks will not change priced Fedwire Securities Service fees for 2016.

The primary risk to the Reserve Banks' ability to achieve budgeted 2016 cost recovery for these services is cost overruns and schedule delays from unanticipated problems with managing complex technology upgrades.

G. FedLine Access—The Reserve Banks charge fees for the electronic connections that depository institutions use to access priced services and allocate the costs and revenue associated with this electronic access to the various priced services. There are currently five FedLine channels through which customers can access the Reserve Banks' priced services: FedMail®, FedLine Web, FedLine Advantage, FedLine Command®, and FedLine Direct. The Reserve Banks package these channels into nine FedLine packages, described below, that are supplemented by a number of premium (or à la carte) access and accounting information options. In addition, the Reserve Banks offer FedComplete® packages, which are bundled offerings of a FedLine Advantage connection and a fixed number of FedACH, Fedwire Funds, and Check 21-enabled services.

Six attended access packages offer access to critical payment and information services via a web-based interface. The FedLine Exchange package provides access to basic information services via email, while two FedLine Web packages offer an email option plus online attended access to a range of services, including cash services, FedACH information services, and check services. Three FedLine Advantage packages expand upon the FedLine Web packages and offer attended access to critical transactional services: FedACH, Fedwire Funds, and Fedwire Securities.

Three unattended access packages are computer-to-computer, IP-based interfaces designed for medium- to high-volume customers. The FedLine Command package offers an unattended connection to FedACH, as well as most accounting information services. The two remaining options are FedLine Direct packages, which allow for unattended connections at one of two connection speeds to FedACH, Fedwire Funds, and Fedwire Securities transactional and information services and to most accounting information services.

For the 2016 FedLine fees, the Reserve Banks will make a minor adjustment to existing fees—a $5-per-month increase for the FedLine Exchange subscriber pack—keeping the remaining existing FedLine fees unchanged. As in previous years, the Reserve Banks will introduce new fees on outdated legacy services in 2016. In particular, the Reserve Banks will implement a $5,000-per-month surcharge for 256K/T1 legacy routers to encourage customers to migrate to more efficient access solutions. The Reserve Banks will also introduce a new custom implementation fee in 2016 for institutions that request tailored FedLine Direct or WAN router setups. The fee, which will vary from $2,500 to $5,000 based on the complexity of the setup, is intended to help the Reserve Banks recover costs that result from nonstandard installations.

In addition, the Reserve Banks will make two structural changes to existing FedLine packages. First, the Reserve Banks will include two Virtual Private Network (VPN) devices in the FedLine Direct Premier package (rather than one) to help ensure consistency across existing Premier level FedLine packages. Second, the Reserve Banks will modify the availability of the FedPayments Manager Import/Export (FPM) tool within the FedLine Advantage Plus and Premier packages based on Fedwire volume thresholds. In particular, depository institutions with more than 250 Fedwire transactions per month, or more than one routing number, will only have access to the FPM tool via FedLine Advantage Premier. Affected customers will experience a fee increase ranging from $15 to $75 per month to upgrade to FedLine Advantage Premier. Customers that wish to maintain their FedLine Advantage Plus package will be able to do so by removing the FPM tool from their subscription.

The Reserve Banks estimate that the price changes will result in a 1.5 percent average price increase for FedLine customers.

II. Analysis of Competitive Effect

All operational and legal changes considered by the Board that have a substantial effect on payment system participants are subject to the competitive impact analysis described in the March 1990 policy “The Federal Reserve in the Payments System.” Under this policy, the Board assesses whether proposed changes would have a direct and material adverse effect on the ability of other service providers to compete effectively with the Federal Reserve in providing similar services because of differing legal powers or constraints or because of a dominant market position deriving from such legal differences. If any proposed changes create such an effect, the Board must further evaluate the changes to assess whether the benefits associated with the changes—such as contributions to payment system efficiency, payment system integrity, or other Board objectives—can be achieved while minimizing the adverse effect on competition.

The 2016 fees, fee structures, and changes in service will not have a direct and material adverse effect on the ability of other service providers to compete effectively with the Reserve Banks in providing similar services. The changes should permit the Reserve Banks to earn a ROE that is comparable to overall market returns and provide for full cost recovery over the long run.

III. 2016 Fee Schedules