Where Did Your Bank’s Service Charge Income Go?

Banks across the country have seen a significant drop in service charge income with as much as 50% of what it was 10 years ago. Many banks attributed the drop in fee income in 2020 to a reduction in fees charged to consumers as we worked through the pandemic.

As we analyze the service charge income number nationwide we see somewhat of a rebound in the first six months of 2022 vs. 2021 but not in all cases. For years banks have subsidized free checking accounts with overdraft income. Now the regulators are looking at banks that generate a significant percentage of their fee income from NSF/OD fees. What is wrong with this picture?

If a bank is generating very little in the way of fee income from the checking accounts they offer than the percentage of income derived from overdrafts drafts that the bank receives from stop payment, check cashing, or other service charges will be very high. Unfortunately this is very misleading and banks should correct this problem quickly. How?

Begin offering non banking benefits to your checking accounts and charge a small monthly fee on each account. Strunk’s Value Checking program has prescribed this solution since 2011 and we would be glad to do a 30 minute demo to show you how it works. Some of the largest retail banks have discontinued fees for overdrafts and now is the time to look at an alternative.

Contact Strunk at info@strunkaccess.com to set up a call to see how it would work for your bank. The regulatory and consumer banking environment is changing. Now is the time to get onboard with a decade old strategy that works.