“ What we learned is that $ 100 is the easiest number for people to remember, ” said Pierre Habis, Santander ’ south fountainhead of consumer and business bank, in connection with the bank ‘s decision to allow customers to overdraw their accounts by up to $ 100 before incurring a tip. “ We had a couple of things we wanted to make sure of : one is clearness and facilitate of understanding from a consumer perspective. What we learned is that $ 100 is the easiest act for people to remember. That was the guiding principle, ” Habis said in an consultation.
Santander joins a growing number of banks that have made moves this year to either eliminate or well reduce the overdraft fees they collect. Ally Financial said in June that it would stop charging overdraft fees all in all, while others, including PNC Financial Services Group in Pittsburgh and Fifth Third Bancorp in Cincinnati, revised their policies to make the fees easier to avoid. The industry has faced recent competitive and regulative atmospheric pressure on overdraft fees. Some fintech startups, such as Chime and Varo, market themselves as more consumer-friendly than traditional banks because they don ’ triiodothyronine charge overdraft fees. At the same meter, Biden government officials at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are expected to take a tougher position on overdraft fees. gross from overdraft fees plunged across the bank diligence last class, partially because many banks waived the charges early in the pandemic and partially because government stimulation payments boosted consumers ’ score balances. recently, some bank executives have cautioned investors that they do not expect that tax income to return to pre-pandemic levels.
In addition to raising the overdraft doorway, Santander said Monday that it will cut the number of overdraft fees that customers can incur in a single day. The bank will limit overdraft paid and overdraft returned fees each to three per day, down from a former terminus ad quem of six. The policy will not apply to Santander ’ south sustained overdraft tip, which a customer incur when their explanation has been overdrawn for five back-to-back business days. In the short condition, Santander expects its overdraft tip income to drop by at least 40 %, Habis said. But the Boston-based bank expects to make up that lost tip income finally by selling more products and services to its consumer and small business customers, he said. In particular, Habis highlighted modern secret bank services that Santander introduced earlier this year. “ From a fee income perspective, we ’ rhenium seeing a fortune more battle with our managed money and investment on the consumer side, ” he said .