Wells Fargo & Co (WFC): The Future of Free Checking According to PNC Financial Services (PNC)’s CEO

Now, to be clear, this doesn’t mean free checking is already extinct. As my colleague Matt Koppenheffer discussed here, Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) has an “Asterisk-Free Checking” product that’s free of monthly fees. In addition, both Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) and Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) have free checking options available to customers that meet certain conditions, such as having direct deposit and maintaining a designated minimum balance.

What it does mean, however, is that things are changing. And they’re moving away from, as opposed to toward, free formational products.

Given the changes in the operating environment, banking in the future has got to be very different from banking in the past, where with clearly offered choices from the lineup of the company’s products and services, and transparency in pricing, so that customers know what they’re going to pay for services that they select. It’s not an idea that’s very dissimilar from a number of other industries, if you think about cable and cell phone companies, but it’s a new and necessary direction for retail banking, that is customer-focused and sustainable.

While it’s hard to argue against Demchak’s point, at the same time, let’s hope the cable and cell phone industries aren’t universally looked to as the models of transparency and fairness in pricing.

The article The Future of Free Checking According to PNC’s CEO originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by John Maxfield.

John Maxfield owns shares of Bank of America. The Motley Fool recommends Bank of America and Wells Fargo. The Motley Fool owns shares of Bank of America, Huntington Bancshares, PNC Financial Services, and Wells Fargo.

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