Red Green wrote:
BoA heads up a cast of characters.


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Bank-o...25092.html?x=0


Picture Summary: http://oi54.tinypic.com/vx1amv.jpg

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street and Financial Reform Act set a limit on the fee a
bank may charge a retail establishment for processing a card payment.
Actually, it was an amendment sponsored by Senator Dick Durbin that did the
deed. Prior to this law, the average interchange fee was 44 cents per
debit/credit card transaction. The new law limits the fee to 21-24 cents.

Obviously, this cuts the bank's take by 50%.

This results in at least $7 billion in extra revenue for retailers (unless
they lower their prices) and a corresponding $7 billion drop-off in revenue
for the banks. The former have no increases in costs and the latter have no
decrease in expenses.

So, if you are a bank and are faced with a 50% drop in revenue from one of
your revenue streams, you are almost forced to find a replacement revenue
source. Hence, BoA's $5/month debit card fee.

Personally, I don't begrudge BoA trying to find an offset for the money lost
due to government meddling, but I'm not going to pay the fee either.