The Wall Street Journal has a story that Bank of America is contemplating the end of free checking in response to the paring back of fee income due to regulatory reform. Banks are undoubtedly already adapting to the past year's regulatory changes, and that means attempting to figure out where they can charge new fees or increase existing ones, without losing too many customers so that the net result of the fee structure shift would be a loss.
Yet, I'm dubious that free checking will go the way of the dodo. Here's why:
