Sweat Equity, Creativity Are Keys to Financial Services' Brave New World

Reg restructuring is not quite law yet but essentially a foregone conclusion. Time to quit whining over the loss of interchange fee income and figure out what to do about it. Face your new reality.

Replacing most of what some have estimated at $2 billion in noninterest income across the industry will not be easy. It will take not only sweat equity but creativity. The obvious place to look is eliminating free checking, but once you’ve given consumers something, it can be difficult to take it back. Rewards checking make a fee a less bitter pill for members to swallow. Pushing members toward online banking by setting certain e-requirements such as e-statements and so many electronic transactions per month could create such a cost savings that a fee might not be necessary. The cost of hard copy fulfillment will only go up.