ATM Fees at Black and Hispanic Owned Single Market Banks: A Comparative Analysis Russ Kashian 1 & Richard McGregory Jr. 2 & Robert Drago 3 Published online: 25 November 2015 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015 Abstract This paper presents evidence regarding three types of ATM fees: foreign fees charged for use of a non-bank ATM by the bank’ s customers, surcharges for use of bank ATMs by non-customers, and balance inquiry charges for the bank’ s own customers. It is hypothesized that, among single market banks, fees will be positively correlated with bank size, a lack of market competition, market penetration by multimarket banks, banks serving low income communities, and Black owned banks (BOBs) and Hispanic owned banks (HOBs), although banks may try to confuse depositors with fees that exhibit a low correlation, or may set low surcharges as part of a loss leader strategy. A 2013 sample of approximately 1500 single market banks, including 21 Black owned banks (BOBs) and 19 Hispanic owned banks (HOBs) is used for correlation and regression analyses. It is found that BOBs charge an average of $0.50 higher foreign fees, and are more likely to charge balance inquiry fees. We also find that larger banks tend to charge higher fees, and that banks may set higher fees where they serve disadvantaged communities of color. Surprisingly, market competi- tion is never significantly associated with ATM fees, and there is minimal correlation across fees, and both results are consistent with banks setting fees strategically to confuse customers. Rev Black Polit Econ (2016) 43:69–84 DOI 10.1007/s12114-015-9228-z * Richard McGregory, Jr. mcgregor@uww.edu Russ Kashian kashianr@uww.edu Robert Drago robert.drago@gmail.com 1 Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, 4304 Hyland Hall, Whitewater, WI 53190, USA 2 Office of Multicultural Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, 226 McCutchan Hall, Whitewater, WI 53190, USA 3 Precision Numerics, Springfield, MA 01108, USA