The Federal Reserve Press Release on Katrina

The Federal Reserve has issued a press release on Katrina:

The financial services community through its various trade associations is working together to assist affected institutions. The agencies encourage financial institutions to assist affected institutions and consider all reasonable and prudent actions that could help meet the critical financial needs of their customers and their communities. To the extent consistent with safe and sound banking practices, such actions may include:

* Waiving ATM fees for customers and non-customers
* Increasing ATM daily cash withdrawal limits
* Easing restrictions on cashing out-of-state and non-customer checks
* Waiving overdraft fees as a result of paycheck interruption
* Waiving early withdrawal penalties on time deposits
* Waiving availability restrictions on insurance checks
* Allowing loan customers to defer or skip some payments
* Waiving late fees for credit card and other loan balances due to interruption of mail and/or billing statements or the customer's inability to access funds
* Easing credit card limits and credit terms for new loans
* Delaying delinquency notices to the credit bureaus