Retail fees of depository institutions, 1994-99

Under legislative mandate, the Federal Reserve Board has for many years sponsored annual surveys of the retail fees charged by depository institutions. Analysis of the data for the most recent six years (1994-99) shows that for the most common types of depository accounts surveyed, few of the fees and minimum balances changed by a statistically significant amount. However, the most common types of ATM fees and the fees for certain special actions, such as stop-payment orders, increased significantly and by more than the rate of consumer price inflation over the period. In addition, for almost all of the fees charged for seven common services and special actions, banks that were part of multistate banking organizations on average charged significantly higher fees than single-state banks, and large banks charged significantly more than small banks. Although they narrowed, the differences remained statistically significant after analyses that controlled for the general location of the institutions, for size (in the case of the multistate versus single-state comparison), and for multistate operations (in the case of the large versus small comparison).Banks and banking - Service charges

Retail fees of depository institutions, 1997-2001

Since 1990, the Federal Reserve Board has reported annually on changes in the availability of retail banking services and in the level of the associated fees. The most recent report, covering the Board's survey conducted in 2001, was released in June 2002. Information on selected fees for each of the years from 1997 through 2001 is presented in this article. Analysis of the data for the 1997-2001 period shows that for the various types of checking and savings accounts tracked, monthly fees tended to rise by statistically significant amounts, as did the minimum balances that depositors had to maintain to avoid the fees. Fees associated with special actions, such as those imposed on checks returned for insufficient funds, also exhibited increases that were statistically significant. Fees imposed for withdrawals by an institution's depositors from other institutions' automated teller machines (ATMs) and for the use of the institution's ATMs by nondepositors became much more common by the end of the period, and average levels increased by statistically significant amounts. Finally, comparisons of the fees charged by institutions of different sizes in 2001 indicate that, in general, the incidence and level of fees were higher at larger institutions.Banks and banking - Service charges

The battle for energy independence: how much of a good thing?

Energy development - United States

Will the Adoption of Basel II Encourage Increased Bank Merger Activity? Evidence from the United States

This study presents two tests of the hypothesis that adoption of an internal ratings-based approach to determining minimum capital requirements, proposed as part of the Basel II capital accord, would cause adopting banking organizations to increase their acquisition activity. The study employs U.S. data and focuses on the advanced internal ratings-based approach, as proposed for banking organizations in the United States. The first test estimates the relationship between excess regulatory capital and subsequent merger activity, including organization and time fixed effects, while the second test employs a " difference in difference" analysis of the change in merger activity that occurred the last time U.S. regulatory capital standards were changed. Estimated coefficients and observed differences have signs consistent with the hypothesis, but results are either statistically insignificant or imply differences that are small in magnitude.

Lack of competition: where it's found and how much it costs

Competition

Foiling the bank robber: what makes a difference

Crime prevention

Measuring income distribution in the United States

Income distribution

Potential competition and the banks

Competition

Who controls what in the U.S. economy?

Corporations

The economics of bank security

Crime