The Coalition also has been working with Representatives John Rose (R-TN) and Glenn Ivey (D-MD) in developing H.R. 1631, the Safe Access to Cash Act of 2025, introduced in the House of Representatives on May 17, and S. 3798 with Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), which was introduced in the U.S. Senate. The Safe Access to Cash Act ensures that robberies involving off-site automatic teller machines (ATMs) receive federal penalties, equal to those imposed for on-site robberies of financial institutions. The Federal Bank Robbery Act of 1934 currently only protects banks and financial institutions, not standalone ATMs in malls, convenience stores, and public locations. 

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​The purpose of the Safe Access to Cash Act is to eliminate a glaring and serious omission in the federal Bank Robbery Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2113, which has resulted from the current widespread and growing use by banks, and their depositors, of technology that wasn’t available in 1934, when that statute was enacted for the purpose of making bank robbery a federal crime.    

Under current law, crimes against any automated teller machine (ATM) terminal, or against anyone using or servicing an ATM, are violations of the federal Bank Robbery Act only when the ATM is owned by an insured financial institution and is located on the premises of the institution.  Crimes against other ATMs, or anyone using or servicing them, currently are prosecutable only under state and local law.

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This proposed act would bring within the coverage of the federal Bank Robbery Act crimes committed (1) against independently owned ATMs, (2) against any ATM owned by an insured financial institution but not located on its premises, and (3) against anyone using, servicing, or loading cash into any such terminal, to the same extent that such crimes involving terminals that are owned by a financial institution, and located on its premises, already are covered by the federal act.

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According to data compiled by the FDIC, between 2002 and 2022, as a result of consolidation in the banking industry, the number of insured banks in the U.S. dropped by nearly half, from 9,354 to 4,756—a decline of 49.2 percent.

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It therefore should come as no surprise that more than half—almost 60 percent—of all ATMs now in service in the U.S. are independently owned, and, further, that as the numbers of banks and banking offices continue to decline, the incidence of crimes against or involving ATM terminals, and against customers using ATMs or personnel repairing, servicing, or loading cash into them, continues sharply increasing.

 

Click here to view the complete bill.

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We encourage you to contact your member of Congress and your senators in support of these initiatives. To find your member of Congress, click here.

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If you need assistance in identifying your representative, please contact us and we will be glad to assist you.