(Wall Street Journal) — A set of new debit-card restrictions proposed by the Federal Reserve on Thursday was more aggressive than investors feared, potentially causing billions of dollars in lost revenue for U.S. banks and stiffening competition for credit-card providers. The new restrictions, most of which won’t be made final until April 21, aim to […]
(LA Times) — The days of free checking accounts in America are waning. New laws that reduce overdraft fees and the charges that banks impose on merchants for handling transactions are cutting deep into bank revenues, prompting many financial institutions to add charges or extra conditions on their checking accounts. The portion of checking accounts […]
(Time) — Banks used to be good not just as holding pens for your money, but as places your money could grow slowly but surely. But considering the evil combo of rising fees and pathetic interest rates, the net result is a slow but sure loss of value even when there’s not much inflation. The […]
(Wall Street Journal) — Big banks may soon start pushing a different type of plastic to their customers. Financial institutions such as U.S. Bancorp, Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp. are exploring prepaid cards as a way to make up revenue that will likely be lost from federal restrictions on debit cards. That is because […]
(Wall Street Journal) — As the holiday-shopping season kicks off, there is one thing most consumers won’t be leaving home without: an overdraft cushion. Rather than face the embarrassment of being declined a purchase, 75% of consumers are opting to pay a fee—sometimes as much as $34—each time they overdraw on their debit-card account, according […]
(Daily Finance) — A change in the way banks are assessed for federal deposit insurance means that small community banks will pay dramatically less in fees beginning next year. But customers of big banks may still be better off than clients of their smaller rivals. The five-member board of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. voted […]
(New York Times) — A new study released by Bankrate.com on Monday offers another sign that many banks are turning away from free checking as they seek to make up for the end of lucrative automatic overdraft fees and the upcoming limits on the fees that merchants pay for debit card transactions. For the study, the 2010 Checking Study, […]
One way to keep the bank profitable is to raise customer fees that are not exempt under the new regulations.