By NPD stock @Adobe Stock

Alexander Saeedy of The Wall Street Journal warns bank customers stand to lose out if Washington enacts new rules. Saeedy writes:

The head of America’s biggest retail bank has a warning for its 86 million customers: Prepare to pay for your bank accounts.

Marianne Lake runs Chase Bank, the sprawling franchise inside JPMorgan JPM -1.20%decrease; red down pointing triangle Chase that is the country’s biggest bank for consumers and one of its biggest credit-card issuers. Lake is warning that new rules that would cap overdraft and late fees will make everyday banking significantly more expensive for all Americans.

Lake said Chase is planning to pass on the costs of higher regulation and charge customers for a number of now-free services, including checking accounts and wealth-management tools, if the rules become law in their current form. She expects her peers in the industry will follow suit. […]

The highly competitive environment for retail deposits means that banks might wind up needing to keep services free, no matter what the final rules end up looking like.

“Most customers can access retail banking easily and seamlessly today,” Goerlich said. “It might be disadvantageous to keep services at zero cost, but banks’ hands could be forced by other competitors who will offer customers low-cost services.”

Read more here.