In a significant development, Visa and Mastercard have reached a settlement totaling $197 million to resolve a prolonged class action lawsuit alleging the manipulation of ATM fees to artificially inflate costs.

The lawsuit, which has been ongoing for a considerable period, asserts that the ATM network regulations imposed by Mastercard and Visa resulted in inflated access fees for individuals withdrawing cash from bank-operated machines.

As per court filings cited by Reuters, Visa has consented to pay $104.6 million, while Mastercard will pay $92.8 million to settle the claims. However, the settlement remains subject to court approval.

This settlement offer comes subsequent to the US Supreme Court's denial of the card companies' appeal in April, challenging a prior ruling by a lower court.

Previously, in 2021, three major banks—Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo—settled similar claims for a combined total of $66 million.

In addition to this settlement, Visa and Mastercard are also confronted with two other class action lawsuits—one involving consumers using non-bank ATMs and another concerning companies that own independent cash machines.