Bank Fee Nightmares: The Horror Continues

Back in the day when I was a treasury specialist at a mid-market company, I was eager to show my boss that I could easily understand all of our bank fees by just having a look at our paper-based monthly bank fee analysis statement.  I was no “treasury expert”, but I when I picked up the statement I felt like I was reading a foreign language.  I could not understand what my company was being charged for and I assumed it was my fault and that my lack of understanding was due to my ignorance about treasury.

I took it as a personal challenge to do all I could to understand each and every line of my bank analysis statement. I did my research without any connections with treasury peers and no knowledge that resources existed to help treasury professionals understand bank fee analysis statements. I came to find that neither really would have helped me decipher my company’s bank fee analysis statement.

As I was going through the analysis statement, I was shocked to discover that my company was being charged with using a reporting system that was taken out of service 18 months before the month of my company’s latest bank fee analysis statement. I found other items that were for charges that were not warranted, and despite my best efforts over weeks, there were still several items in the analysis statement that I could not understand, and my relationship could not explain them to me either.

I turned up the heat and got my company’s treasurer involved and the bank was summoned to my company to explain all lines of our bank analysis statement in person to me and our treasurer. The day of the reckoning came, and when I went to the lobby to greet the person who could explain each line of the bank account analysis statement, I found five people in the lobby. It was my company’s relationship manager and four product managers. Even with five bank representatives in the room, explaining every line of the bank fee analysis became an elaborate dance.

Fast forward a few years, I finally got to the point where I actually understood what my company was supposed to be charged each month by the bank. Given that knowledge I audited monthly bank analysis statements and found hundreds of dollars that my company was being charged each month. When the bank got tired of that dance, they started trying to hide fees by introducing “bundled” services to our analysis statement. That meant another trip to Indiana for my relationship manager, and the dance for bank fee transparency continued until my tenure in treasury came to an end.

I am sad to report that even in an AI world with “magical” tools there is still a lack of transparency relative to all the charges in bank fee analysis statements.

I will never forget that experience from my personal vault of treasury adventures.

Banks, it is past time for you to “just do better”. The excuses for a lack of transparency are tired, and technology exists for you to easily deliver transparency in what you charge your clients for and why.

This article is part of The Vault, our monthly series featuring real-world banking wins, fee horror stories, and key lessons learned. Written by our partner contributor, Ernie Humphrey.