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ATM Regulations
The city of Santa Monica, California, enacted regulations that prohibited banks for charging for ATM use to customers from other banks. Santa Monica became the first city in the United States to establish such ATM regulations. The regulations were enacted on the premise that financial institutions had started enforcing new and excessive fees on customers. These fees were increasing at a rate that was more than double the inflation rate (Institute for Local Self-Reliance, 2008). The City Council of the City of Santa Monica became concerned that financial institutions had started imposing changes to services that were previously provided for free. An example of services that were no charged for is ATM surcharges. In this regard, financial institutions imposed a surcharge upon non-account holders for using ATM, which was in addition to the fee they already charged account holders or using another banks ATM.
However, the enactment of these regulations by the City of Santa Monica was not received well by some financial institutions. Major financial institutions like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and the California Bankers Association filed a lawsuit against the city. The lawsuit was filed on the premise that federal law preempts local surcharge...

As a result, the ATM regulations were subsequently overturned by the Ninth Circuit Court. Even though the regulations were overturned, they were of potential benefits to the banking consumer and banks. The potential benefits emerged from the fact that the regulations were enacted to help promote fair competition between financial institutions while protecting customers. In this regard, the regulations were geared towards promoting the economic growth and development of the City of Santa Monica.
One of the potential benefits of these regulations to the banking consumer is protection of customers from double charges that have significant impacts on their economic well-being. Through these regulations, the banking consumer would be protected for excessive and unfair fees charged by banks, especially for services that were previously offered for free. Since customers are already charged for ATM use, the new surcharge would contribute to double charges because the fees amount to $2.50 per transaction (ABC News, 2017). Secondly, the regulations are good for the banking consumer since they protect against class disparity.…