Banks are expected to record $35.4 billion in overdraft fee revenue this year, down 4.6% from 2009 and flat with 2008, according to Moebs Services.
Next year, the figure is likely to grow 7.3%, to $38 billion, the highest ever, the research firm said.
The latest 2010 figure is up 0.6% from the amount the economist Michael Moebs forecast in March. He now expects the median overdraft price to increase to $28 a check this year, from $26 in 2009. In March he predicted the price would average $27 a check in 2010.
Moebs's recent study, which analyzed fee revenue from 2,284 banks and credit unions for the first six months of 2010, showed that revenue bottomed in the first quarter and started to rebound in the second quarter. Revenue is expected to fall in the third quarter but recover by the same amount in the fourth.
Moebs also found that between 60% and 80% of consumers have chosen to be in an overdraft program.
