Wanted: fewer regulations

Do you feel an overdraft in here?

There are a lot of problems the Biden administration should focus on now: The southern border. Fentanyl. The national debt. A budget deal. Ukraine. Israel. Pick one.

But bank fees? We haven’t seen those protests in the streets.

The paper says the Biden administration is targeting overdraft fees that banks charge customers, because those fees “pose an unnecessary burden on American customers, particularly those living paycheck to paycheck.”

You know what would be an even bigger burden? If banks bounced those checks back to where they came from. Or declined a purchase at the sale, which isn’t just embarrassing, but could mean somebody not buying supper for the kids, or maybe emergency diapers.

Not to sound uncaring, but folks who set up bank accounts know what they’re getting into. This isn’t small-print stuff. Banks advertise it. If you want to take out what amounts to a short-term loan—if you want the bank to pay the gas station even though you don’t have the money in the account—they will certainly charge a fee. And they charge different fees, so Americans can shop for what they want.

But the Biden administration thinks it knows better. The cost to overdraw your account should be no more than $3, according to some in the White House. The paper said: “The proposed change by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would potentially eliminate billions of dollars in fee revenue for the nation’s biggest banks … .”

In a statement, the president explains: “For too long, some banks have charged exorbitant overdraft fees— sometimes $30 or more—that often hit the most vulnerable Americans hardest, all while banks pad their bottom lines. Banks call it a service—I call it exploitation.”

Is lending money at interest exploitation, too? Or charging a fee every month for a bank account or credit card?

Is it “padding the bottom line” to offer a service that people want, while making a profit at the same time? Or is that something they call capitalism?

Under the proposed rule change, banks could only charge customers what it would cost to break even on these overdraft charges.

So why would a bank offer a service if it is only allowed to break even? Would you?

There are many questions.

The rules would only apply to bigger banks—those with more than $10 billion in assets. Smaller banks and credit unions would still apparently be allowed to pad their bottom lines and exploit their customers. Why, we wonder? Smaller rural banks offer services to poor people, too, right?

And what happens when the banks decide that, without overdraft fees that pay, they’ll stop the service altogether? There is no law that forces them to pay the electric bill, the convenience store, or the landlord even though the check is no good.

Yet. There is no law yet. Give this administration time.

The article that appeared in this newspaper said the administration has decided to make the elimination of these fees a “cornerstone” of its economic agenda heading into 2024. Why, we wonder? Again, we haven’t seen those protests in the streets.

But apparently the Biden administration wants to regulate us back to the time when all those checks would bounce. And then the electric company or the convenience store would charge their own fees to re-submit a check or allow you to pick it up. We suppose the administration would then make those fees illegal?

Let’s not give the White House any ideas. Enough bad ones keep coming as it is.