WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. Brad Miller is introducing legislation aimed at making it easier for customers to switch banks.
The bill would give consumers the right to close a checking or savings account at no charge. It would ensure that customers can close an account even if they have negative balances. And it would prohibit banks from assessing fees to an account after receiving a customer request to close the account, among other provisions.
Miller said that some banks make it difficult for customers to close their accounts — for example, by requiring them to visit a branch, or by refusing to close accounts that have a negative balance.
"It should be as easy to move from one bank to another as it is to move from one grocery store to another," Miller told reporters in his Capitol Hill office.
Richard Hunt, president of the Consumer Bankers Association, discounted the concerns that Miller raised. He said that he closed a bank account recently, and it took six minutes. He also dismissed the bill's chances of passage, and pointed to other recent legislative measures that have hurt the profitability of banks.
"I think Congress ought to take a timeout and look at the damage they've already done," Hunt said.
Ken Clayton, senior vice president of congressional relations and public policy at the American Bankers Association, also said that it's easy to close bank accounts.
"In fact, many banks already offer switch kits to make the process easy," he said in an email. "The bigger question is do we really need government to come in and protect consumers from something that isn't really a problem? Doing so will just drive up the costs of banks, and ultimately, the costs to consumers."
Miller, who represents North Carolina, said that he began working with consumer groups on the bill last summer. The recent brouhaha over new debit-card fees from Bank of America and other banks made this a favorable time to introduce the legislation.
The bill does not have any support from congressional Republicans, but Miller said that the legislation is an attempt to harness free-market forces for the benefit of consumers.
"This is about making the market work to protect consumers. It's about using competition. And Republicans say they favor that," he said.
Miller's bill has the support of the Consumer Federation of America, the AFL-CIO and Americans for Financial Reform, among other groups.
