The apparent pullback last week by Bank of America and WellsFargo on debit fees does give credit unions a pause in strategy butthe momentum on Bank Transfer Day continues largely unchecked, CU consultinghouses agreed Monday.

“My belief is that credit unions need to continue to promotetheir value regardless of how big or small Bank Transfer Day endsup being,” maintained Bill Handel, vicepresident-research/development at Raddon Financial Group in Chicagowho added, “the difference between the mega-banks andcommunity-based financial institutions was significant even priorto the imposition of debit card fees and so the imposition of thesefees was a means by which this difference could be drivenhome.”

If debit fees are softened as put forward by BofA, Wells Fargoand Chase over the weekend, then for CUs, “the ability todifferentiate may lessen” but the fundamental difference does notgo away.

BofA has said its Jan. 1 $5 fee is now “evolving” with differentcustomer criteria while Wells Fargo said it was suspending its $3“test” fee in half a dozen states in November.

“The big mega banks that are now starting to pull back from someof their earlier announced checking fees are responding to the factthat they realize they are vulnerable to a significant loss of someof their most profitable accounts to credit unions and communitybanks,” argued DennisDollar, the former NCUA chairman and principal partner of aBirmingham, Ala consulting firm.

The battle for checking accounts, said Dollar, “is the battlefor desperately needed fee income, and it will be fought for thenext several years. It will not be settled on Bank TransferDay.”

Over the next 18 months credit unions, he forecast, “will pickup a sizable number of checking accounts when the comparisonshoppers – reading the publicity about Bank Transfer Day – begin torecognize the credit union checking advantage that many progressivecredit unions are offering in an attempt to seize upon this growingdissatisfaction with the big bank overreach on fee increases.”

In a Filene Research Institute blog last week entitled, “The DayAfter Bank Transfer Day,” D.C. consultant Robert Hall warned that“assuming” BTD is successful then CUs need to “convert these newdeposits into earning assets—loans.” Proper preparation for BTDrequires “cross selling success during the new account openingprocess in refinancing auto loans held by banks” as well as aswitch into lower irate credit cards.

Commenting on the ongoing industry debate about CUs using BTDfor tough anti-bank ads, Ben Rogers, Filene's research director,said its research shows that “even when the public is angry “ oversuch a phenomenon as the bank fees “there is not always that followthrough” in actually making the account switch to a CU.

And customers, he said, do not necessarily move accounts “basedon explicit bank bashing.” Accounts are moved when consumers cansee “there are tangible benefits such as $200 savings on a carloan,” said Rogers.

Handel of Raddon said also “the challenge for credit unions isalways going to be making their difference relevant to theconsumer. Those who are practitioners in the financialservices space understand the differences that exist between largebanks and credit unions, but the average consumer spends such aminor part of their day thinking about financial services that theyhave no time to differentiate between financial service providers –until they have an issue.”