President of the Clearing Banks Association and Chief Executive Officer of Fidelity, Gowon Bowe appeared on The Rundown talk show this week.  During the interview with host Clint Watson, Bowe addressed the recent increase in banking fees.

Bowe said, “well you had two years of the COVID and you said but your now back to profits but I have to replace those losses.  Cause no one came to me when I made the loss and said, well you know, those fees that you didn’t charge me here’s that fee back, you go and plug the hole with the losses.  Persons are saying absorb the losses big, bad bank and then when you make profits don’t charge me the fees but it doesn’t work that way because my shareholder is me and you.  My shareholder has said I’ve put my money at risk and I want my management to be responsible. I want them to take a return and don’t look at one year, two years look at what is going to happen over fifteen and I say profitability from 2008 is just now returning.”

Bowe also addressed the need for public education about online banking and the use of debit and credit cards.  He said, “we don’t always appreciate the value of it.  So using your debit and credit card but also educating you to say that, you know, businesses can’t charge you a fee for using your debit or credit card, understanding what it means to be online banking, the audit trail, the dual factor authentication, the pin and not sharing that.  So it’s not just a matter of, like I said, sort of pushing people towards digital is showing what are the improved benefits of doing these in a digital way that also will combat some of this concern about fees.”

Governor of the Central Bank, John Rolle recently suggested that a solution to the bank fees maybe to require banks to offer a basic account for which banking fees are regulated.