Continuing a push into the full range of retail financial services, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection has sought public views on whether it should supplant current rules governing overdrafts and similar services with a different and likely far more prescriptive set of standards. New requirements in this area would reduce or even eliminate a major source of fees that bolster retail-bank earnings, earnings already under stress due to current interest rates and macroeconomic strain. However, consumer advocates believe that banks abuse customers by failing to give them ample opportunity to deny overdraft protection, especially for repeated small transactions where fees can be large and perhaps disproportionate to the services received.
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