Financial institution of America slashed the quantity it expenses prospects once they spend greater than they’ve of their accounts and plans to remove totally its charges for bounced checks.

It’s the newest transfer by the nation’s largest banks to roll again the overdraft charges they lengthy charged prospects, charges that usually quantity to a whole bunch of {dollars} a 12 months for frequent overdraft customers.

The financial institution primarily based in Charlotte, North Carolina, will lower the overdraft charges it expenses prospects to $10 from $35 beginning in Might. It should additionally cease charging charges for non-sufficient funds — that are levied when it rejects a transaction — higher often called bouncing a examine.

Whereas checks are not broadly used, NSF charges can come from automated funds like utility payments. Financial institution of America, the nation’s second-largest financial institution, says roughly 25% of its overdraft/NSF price income every year got here from NSF charges. Overdraft charges usually come when somebody makes a purchase order on a debit card that exceeds the out there money of their account.

Altogether, Financial institution of America estimates the steps will lower its overdraft-fee revenues by 97% from the place they have been in 2009, the 12 months earlier than it began taking incremental steps towards reining in overdraft-fee revenues.

“That is the ultimate step within the journey we’ve been on,” mentioned Holly O’Neill, president of retail banking at BofA, in an interview. “We’ve good monetary options for purchasers with out them having to depend on overdraft, however we are going to nonetheless have overdraft whether it is wanted.”

Shopper teams and politicians applauded the measure, notably with Financial institution of America’s dimension as the biggest shopper banking franchise within the nation.

“I’ve been working to cut back or remove overdraft charges for 20 years and to provide them credit score, they actually did pay attention,” mentioned Martin Eakes, CEO of the Heart for Accountable Lending. “This might doubtlessly a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars} staying in prospects’ accounts as an alternative of going towards charges.”

It stays to be seen whether or not the choice by BofA — a pacesetter within the retail banking business — to chop overdraft charges will stress different banks to take comparable measures.

“Banks are going to take completely different approaches. Some are going to remove them, cut back them, others will stay in denial about how damaging these charges are. However now they’ve aggressive stress” mentioned Lauren Saunders, govt director for the Nationwide Shopper Regulation Heart. “Any financial institution that’s not significantly contemplating reforming their overdraft practices is simply hurting themselves in the long run.”

The financial institution can also be eliminating two smaller charges as nicely. It should not permit prospects to overdraft their accounts on the ATM and can remove a $12 price it charged prospects when the financial institution robotically moved cash from one account to a different to keep away from an overdraft, typically transferring cash from a long-term financial savings account into the shoppers’ main checking.

Overdraft has its origins in banks offering a service for a price to prospects who might haven’t balanced their checkbook accurately and needed a financial institution to honor a purchase order. However the widespread use of debit playing cards modified this courtesy right into a routine income for banks. If a buyer lacked funds of their account, a $5 espresso might find yourself costing $35 due to overdraft charges.

Overdraft charges grew to become profitable for the business however on the similar time made banks a goal for shopper advocates and regulators. After the monetary disaster, Democrats put the Shopper Monetary Safety Bureau and different regulators in control of reining in overdraft price income. The CFPB beneath President Biden has determined to take one other take a look at overdraft price practices.

“For a lot of huge banks, overdraft charges are nonetheless the regular, dependable, predictable, simple income that shareholders love,” mentioned Rohit Chopra, the CFPB’s director, in December.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts and a long-time critic of banking practices like overdraft charges, referred to as BofA’s announcement “a step in the appropriate path” on Twitter.

“Massive banks ought to remove these charges altogether,” Warren mentioned.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio and the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, referred to as BofA’s determination a “good first step towards banks eliminating overdraft charges altogether.”

For years, BofA has slowly reduce on its overdraft price practices. It removed overdraft charges tied to debit card purchases in 2010 and created a checking account in 2014 that didn’t permit prospects to overdraft. The SafeBalance account is now the financial institution’s mostly opened account.

However BofA and the broader business weren’t able to do away with overdraft charges altogether till lately. Many banks froze the charges they charged prospects in the course of the first 12 months of the pandemic and business nonetheless booked document earnings. Whereas overdraft charges fell for the primary time in six years in 2020, the business nonetheless collected over $30 billion in charges from such practices that 12 months.

So beginning in 2021, some bigger banks began asserting they have been dropping overdraft charges totally. Ally Financial institution, PNC, Santander and Capital One have been among the many larger regional banks to successfully remove overdraft charges. JPMorgan Chase additionally eased its overdraft working towards, giving prospects extra leeway to go unfavorable of their accounts earlier than charges can be charged.

Financial institution of America will report its fourth-quarter outcomes on Jan. 19, which can give buyers and the general public a full-year view on how a lot the financial institution continues to be bringing in from charges like overdraft.