Deposit account fees at U.S. banks and thrifts hit $4.59 billion in the third quarter, the highest amount since banks began reporting detailed consumer fee data in the first quarter of 2016.
This was a 1.1% increase from the year-ago quarter and a 10.3% increase from the first quarter of 2016.
Both overdraft fees and maintenance service charges reached the highest level yet reported at $3.04 billion and $1.05 billion, respectively, while ATM fees dropped slightly from the second quarter to $502.8 million.

Deposit account fees as a percentage of operating revenue, however, dropped to 2.39% in the third quarter, down 8 basis points year over year and 2 basis points since the first quarter of 2016.

JPMorgan Chase Bank NA reported $783.0 million in consumer deposit account fees in the third quarter, surpassing Bank of America NA, which reported $781.0 million. Service charges at JPMorgan Chase Bank accounted for 3.73% of the bank's operating revenue, compared to a median of 1.90% for the industry.

Killeen, Texas-based First National Bank Texas again topped the list of banks most reliant on service charges as a percentage of operating revenue. The bank's $34.5 million in total fees represented 43.61% of its operating revenue.
Two subsidiaries of Dickinson Financial Corp. II — Academy Bank NA and Armed Forces Bank NA — were ranked second and fourth for deposit fees as a percentage of operating revenue. According to an Oct. 25 report from S&P Global Market Intelligence, 69 of Dickinson Financial Corp.'s 84 in-store branches were housed in Wal-Mart stores.
Did you enjoy this analysis? Click here to set up real-time alerts for data-driven articles on the U.S. financial sector. Commercial banks, savings banks, and savings and loan associations report service fees from consumer deposits in schedule RI of the call report. Click here to see the aggregate data for U.S. commercial banks (scroll to the bottom). Click here to access an Excel template showing the keyfields used to pull the list of companies with the highest service fees-to-operating revenue ratios in the third quarter of 2017. |

