Fee income

Funneling fees from emergency loans to feed the hungry. Supporting psychological counseling for health care heroes and financial advice for the poor. Backing retrofits of customer operations to produce protective gear for front-line medical personnel. Bankers and financial educators have tossed out the traditional playbook to help clients and communities in crisis.

Consumers are using their debit and credit cards less, and that's causing a decline in interchange income for credit unions and banks.

Citizens, Regions and others say business investments initiated before the COVID-19 pandemic, including technology improvements and new consumer offerings, are on track.

Bankers say they understand the need for an extraordinary government response to the coronavirus outbreak, but worry that even slashing interest rates won’t stimulate demand.

Advance wage access company Branch has partnered with Cardtronics’ Allpoint ATM network to provide surcharge-free cash access at all Allpoint ATMs across the U.S. to its customers.

Wells Fargo is announcing two new bank accounts that limit fees for consumers ahead of the company's planned congressional hearings in Washington next week.

Community banks are entering the business as intermediaries to counter the pinch of low loan yields and intense competition on spread income.

The deal for Trinity Capital in Los Angeles would further strengthen the company's capital markets capabilities.

The company agreed to acquire Alliance Benefit Group of Illinois, which has more than 600 clients and 40,000 plan participants.

Fourth-quarter fees earned from managing the assets of family offices rose 12% and were a powerful counterbalance to tighter margins.

A tough fourth quarter seemed to foreshadow challenges in the year ahead for the nation’s fifth-largest bank.

A 10% cut next year, which will be identical to the fee reduction this year, is projected to save the industry about $85 million.

The combination of low unemployment, rising wages and falling interest rates means more households are taking out loans for big-ticket items like speedboats and mobile homes.

Count Citizens Financial’s Bruce Van Saun among those who think interest rate cuts could halt by mid-2020. The key, he says, is to focus on delivering services customers are willing to pay fees for and to skillfully reprice deposits until then.

Because such a high number of new cardholders were paying fees for premium cards, Amex is earning subscription-like recurring revenue.

The Minneapolis company attributed the uptick to new tech tools, additional loan officers and other process improvements — not to mention the refi boom fueled by lower rates. It’s a formula other banks are expected to copy.

The Minneapolis bank says recent investments in its retail operation contributed to strong improvement in home lending and mortgage banking fees.

Even with fee revenue already down, Oregon-based Providence FCU has cut its overdraft fees by half. Some analysts say the move could pay off if the economy goes south.

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Annual fees aren’t scaring customers away from American Express Co.’s credit cards. Roughly 70% of cardholders the lender added in the second quarter have premium, fee-paying cards, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Campbell told investors at a conference Tuesday in New York.