Since November, Wells Fargo has charged $15 a month for some checking accounts unless customers have three accounts with the bank, maintain a minimum balance of $7,500 or have a Wells Fargo mortgage. … Some Citibank customers are being charged $20 a month unless they keep $15,000 in their accounts, up from $6,000 before December. …
Banks aren’t charities, and they say they need to make money, or at least cover the cost of doing business. … The big banks are public companies and are expected to make a profit somehow.
You’d never guess from this writeup that bank deposits are loans to the bank – which means that deposits themselves already include payments for the bank’s services. In what other industry does the lender have to pay interest to the borrower?
As in most cases, the solution would be competition and free entry in the banking industry. But regulations make that a distant ideal.
What bank regulations are you counting?
I can’t speak for Professor Long but legal tender laws and the Federal Reserve System are the short answer. A longer answer can be found here.
Don’t credit unions offer a business model that competes with the banking business model? If so, how do you mean ‘distant ideal’?