The financial news that actually matters
This category focuses on bank fees, hidden charges, service costs, and updates in banking policies. It explains how fee structures work and how policy changes may impact customers’ accounts and financial behavior.
A restaurant owner in Chicago who runs $50,000 a month in credit card sales might pay $400 or more in interchange fees just on tips and sales tax. Illinois passed a law to eliminate those charges. In 29 days, the federal government will undo that protection. On June 30, 2026, an interim final rule from…
In 31 days, a pair of interim final actions from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will give every national bank and federal savings association explicit authority to charge interchange fees on the full amount of a card transaction. The orders override Illinois’s Interchange Fee Prohibition Act, the first state law to ban…
In 2014, a licensed firearms dealer in Wisconsin discovered his bank account had been closed with 30 days’ notice and no meaningful explanation. He was not accused of fraud, money laundering, or any legal violation. His business simply fell into a category that federal examiners considered a “reputation risk” for the bank. Variations of that…
A server at a Chicago restaurant rings up a $100 dinner tab. The customer leaves a $25 tip on a credit card, and the bill includes $10.25 in sales tax. Under a new Illinois law taking effect July 1, 2026, the restaurant’s card-processing fee should be calculated on the $64.75 food-and-drink total alone, not the…
As of May 29, 2026, a joint final rule from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the FDIC, and the National Credit Union Administration is 11 days from taking effect. When the FDIC released a batch of internal documents in early 2025, the letters inside confirmed what gun dealers, crypto firms, and religious…
On June 30, 2026, a federal preemption order will strip Illinois of the power to stop nationally chartered banks from collecting swipe fees on credit card tips and sales taxes. The state’s Interchange Fee Prohibition Act was supposed to take effect one day later, on July 1. That single-day gap is not a coincidence. The…
Leave a 20% tip on a restaurant tab paid by credit card, and your server is not the only one collecting. The bank that issued your card takes a small cut of the entire transaction through what the industry calls an interchange or “swipe” fee. That fee is calculated on the full amount: the meal,…
Try to wire $400,000 to a title company for a home closing in June 2026 and the bank will tack on a fee that has barely budged since the Obama administration. Chase charges $25 for a domestic outgoing wire and $40 to $50 for an international send, according to its most recent published fee schedule….
Illinois restaurant owners spent months reprogramming point-of-sale terminals and renegotiating processing contracts, all to prepare for a state law that would have stopped banks from collecting swipe fees on the tax and tip portions of credit card transactions. That law was set to kick in on July 1, 2026. It will never apply to the…
Twenty-one days from now, federal bank examiners will lose one of the quietest and most consequential powers they have held over American depositors: the ability to pressure a bank into shutting your account because someone in Washington decided your politics, your faith, or your perfectly legal business posed a “reputation risk” to the institution. The…