Banking Briefing — January 17, 2022
- Overdraft fees have been under a lot of scrutiny recently, and more banks want to show they're above this revenue source.
- But can banks really get away with getting rid of these unpopular fees while still staying afloat?

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In October last year, overdraft fees were reported to have reached a record high of $33.58, according to research by Bankrate.
Still, the amount of money banks are actually bringing in through overdraft fees has been going down – that’s largely due to the pandemic, and banks waiving overdraft fees in response.
In 2020, revenue from overdraft fees was $8.82 billion – down almost 3 billion compared to 2019, according to research from S&P global intelligence. In the first 9 months of last year, revenue from overdraft fees was around $6.13 billion.
Overdraft fees’ footprint in banks’ revenue stream may be shrinking.
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