BofA Web Site Goes Down...Again

CNBC ^ | October 3, 2011

[Greysard]

The main problem with the banks is all the new regulations.

Another main problem with the banks is customers. Retail banking is very expensive. Imagine people coming to deposit $10 at the cashier's window. Then imagine people coming to withdraw $10 also at the cashier's window. The flow of money approximately balances out, which means that all these branches and cashiers and managers and insurance are a zero sum game - they work all day for no advantage to the bank. A million dollar transaction will come through SWIFT and no human will need to touch that transaction.

Compare that to the credit card business. Was it something like 5% cut from the merchant whenever they sweep the card? We pay for that, of course, since merchants just raise all prices by 5% and we have no recourse. But the bank is only running computers and collecting money. The whole operation can be ran by a few computer specialists.

I get a feeling that BofA - and other retail banks too - just want to raise the costs so much that the customers just go away, wherever they might. Then the bank can close most branches and switch to purely electronic banking, either by servicing credit cards or "bill pay" or investments or whatever, as long as they can get rid of 100,000 (or however many) expensive, unoutsorceable US employees.