Gail Marksjarvis of the Chicago Tribune reports that only 46 percent of banks are still offering free checking accounts to customers.
“That’s a major change from 2009, when more than 78 percent of banks offered the freebie.”
The reason: banks are facing higher costs due to the Dodd-Frank Act, passed in 2009. (Ironically, the Act was passed with the intention of “protecting consumers.”)
Before [Dodd-Frank], a $1 billion institution might have had one person working half-time to make sure government regulations were obeyed; now it’s four to five people.
