Visa, Mastercard to pay $167.5m in ATM user fee settlement

WASHINGTON, Dec 19 (Reuters): Visa and Mastercard have agreed to pay a combined $167.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to keep ATM access fees artificially high.

The proposed settlement was filed on Thursday in the federal district court in Washington and requires a judge's approval.

The accord would pay potentially millions of ATM users who were charged an unreimbursed access fee to withdraw cash from independent, non-bank ATMs.

Visa would contribute about $88.8 million and Mastercard about $78.7 million to a settlement fund. The money would be distributed to eligible customers with qualifying ATM transactions made since October 2007.