Millions of Americans with free checking accounts with JPMorgan Chase can expect to pay for the privilege of using their services going forward, one of their executives said Friday.
JPMorgan CEO of Consumer & Community Banking Marianne Lake told The Wall Street Journal for a story published Friday that the bank’s 86 million customers who enjoy free checking accounts will have to pay.
Lake, who runs the country's largest retail bank and is one of the largest issuers of credit cards, warned that new rules that seek to cap overdraft and late fees will make everyday banking more expensive. Those costs will be passed onto customers.
“The changes will be broad, sweeping and significant,” Lake said. “The people who will be most impacted are the ones who can least afford to be, and access to credit will be harder.”
In addition to checking account services, wealth management tools, credit score trackers and financial planning services are also expected to lose their “free” status. Lake said that she expects other banks to do the same; however some consumer advocacy groups say the big banks are putting profits over people.
Dennis Kelleher, president of Better Markets, told the outlet, “The banks say that their only option is to pass on their costs to customers, but that’s not true. Yet again, banks are dressing up their attempts to maximize their own profit under the guise of what’s good or bad for customers.”
New financial regulations that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have proposed include proposing an $8 cap on credit-card late payment fees and a $3 cap for overdraft bank accounts. The new laws proposed in March have yet to take effect and are currently under appeal following numerous lawsuits from banking industry groups.