Around three to four years ago, the scene was different for American banks as they were willing to give home loans somewhere in the region of near 0 per cent interest rates. Customers were treated as VIPs, and large number of people began to take loans, but later on, they could not pay off the loans. The banks were the ones who started to lose out, so various kinds of measures were taken by the banks to bring themselves back to profit mode - after the sub-prime crisis led to huge bank losses, and this ultimately led to tightening of consumer and institutional lending norms.

After the introduction of the financial regulation reform bill by the Obama administration, various banks across the nation felt a serious need for themselves to keep loan liabilities under check. The bill also had aimed at starting a new bureau, Federal Reserve, so as to standardize mortgages and credit cards. By charging $5 per month, it may be Bank of America’s way to increase their revenue.

Forbes.com also has reported that there are around 38.7 million people in the US who own a debit card from Bank of America. So, will these debit card users still be loyal to Bank of America and stick with the same bank? Only time will tell.

Bank of America is one of the largest banks in the US, was founded in 1904 with its headquarters in Charlotte at North Carolina. In the near future, we may witness other financial firms such as J.P. Morgan Chase & Co and Wells Fargo & Co., who are also thinking of charging their customers for using debit cards. So, a very important question arises, is this the starting phase for banks to start collecting money from their debit card users, will other banks also follow in their footsteps?

With the introduction of this policy by Bank of America, it is the consumers of the bank at large who may have a thing to say as they would be the ones paying for the usage of the cards. Who knows, if the bank may gradually start to lose its customers as they might go on and apply for other banks' debit card.