Banking Blog

Just in case you were wondering if banks are still upset about upcoming limits on the debit interchange fees they can charge merchants, rest assured they are. The latest scheme to replace interchange fee income/punish America for its insolence comes via JP Morgan Chase, which is floating the idea of placing limits on the size

J.D. Power has a new report out on how people shop for a new bank, and some of the results are a little surprising, at least for me. The study found that the biggest factor that attracted new customers to a bank was brand image, followed closely by advertising and having bank branches in convenient

Remember when we thought giving Americans a choice about whether to enroll in their bank’s overdraft protection program would cut down on the amount of Americans’ money banks were able to siphon off? Six months after the “opt-in” rule went into effect for checking accounts, the opposite is happening. Suzanne Kapner of The Financial Times

What if your credit union decided it didn’t want to be a credit union anymore? Rachel Witkowski at American Banker has a great story this month on one credit union’s push to become a bank: Har-co Maryland Federal Credit Union in Bel Air recently notified its members that it plans to convert to a mutual

What are you planning on doing with that change in your pocket? If you’re about to spend it on vending machine food or just lose it in your couch cushions, the Independent Community Bankers of America would like to have a word with you. That’s because it’s America Saves Week, a week-long push by the

There was a great article last week in The Wall Street Journal on how big banks are ramping up their incentives to try and bring in new checking and savings customers. Here are some of the examples of incentives being offered by some of the bigger banks: PNC Bank: $100 coupon for opening a checking

There’s been a lot of talk lately about the Bank of China’s decision a while back to begin accepting deposits from American consumers for conversion into Chinese yuan. The deposits are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and because many consider China a lock for tremendous growth going forward and its currency has long

In covering banking for Bankrate, I spend a lot of time thinking about what people don’t like from their bank — excessive fees, poor service, security problems — but less time on what they do. An interesting survey out this week commissioned by Ally Bank explored just that question. In honor of Valentine’s Day, pollsters

The Identity Theft Resource Center, which tracks and monitors security breaches that involve personally sensitive information, reported 662 incidents that exposed more than 16 million records in its year-end 2010 report. The Banking/Credit/Financial category didn’t dominate the list, but quite a few breaches were attributed to companies in this sector. Some of the incidents involved

The essential message was “status quo” in the Federal Reserve’s latest quarterly survey of senior loan officers’ observations of lending practices, at least on the consumer side of the equation. The survey, which also included commercial and business lending, found not much had changed for better or worse. To wit: Banks again reported an increased willingness