Who is Responsible for the Length of Checking Account Disclosures?

by Jeff Sovern

A recent report by the Pew Charitable Trust, Still Risky: An Update on the Safety and Transparency of Checking Accounts, found that the median length of bank checking account disclosures among the banks included within the study ran 69 pages.  The response by Consumer Bankers Association president Richard Hunt in this MSNBC report: "We don't like it."  In answer to the question of why bank disclosures are so long, he said "We have to.  All the regulations passed by Congress and regulators force us to do so." But according to the report, credit union checking account disclosures are less than half the length of bank checking account disclosures (though they are still longer than desirable at a median of 31 pages), and one bank's disclosures spanned 21 pages. 

The median number of bank fees was 26; some banks had 48 fees.  By contrast, no credit union examined charged more than 29 fees.  Can federal regulators be blamed for the number of fees banks choose to charge?  And just what are these fees, anyway?  According to page 45 of the report, among the fees disclosed were fees for

“empty envelope,“ “bad address,” “online images and photocopy requests: self-service through online banking,” “domestic wire transfer email notification,” “coins deposited (large amount),” “rejected offline ATM transactions,” and “customer service representative assisted transfer.”

 Is it Congress's fault when a bank chooses to charge a  fee for sending an empty emvelope or coins?  Could it be that banks are inflating the number of fees they charge in an effort to trigger information overload so that consumers don't read the disclosures? 

Comments

[Stella Kniffin]

I do not believe ANY BANK should disclose information
on peoples accounts -WITHOUT a BONAFIDE COURT ORDER
FOR GOOD REASON -(DRUGS-ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES ETC)
THIS IS AMERICA -ISN'T IT-WHAT HAPPENED TO PRIVACY ?

[swapon]

Bad address is so bad for inquire customer places/identity. For that customer miss valuable information.