Wells Fargo Joins Rivals in Fees Revamp

The company said earlier Wednesday that it is revamping its policies to "make them clearer and simpler and to give customers more control over their debit cards and the fees they pay," according to a statement.

"We recognize the tremendous growth in our customers' debit-card usage and we're revamping our overdraft policies and posting order to be more consistent with the way they use their accounts today," Charlie Scharf, JPMorgan Chase's head of retail financial services, said in a release.

The Financial Services Roundtable, an industry group, applauded the banks for limiting overdraft fees.

"In these challenging economic times, it is important to help customers maintain a healthy financial future," said Steve Bartlett, the Roundtable's president and CEO, in a statement. "We applaud Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase for leading the industry to serve the consumer in the best manner possible by greatly reducing overdraft fees."

Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, who is pushing legislation to limit overdraft fees, said, "These two institutions are setting a good example, but we need to go the rest of the way so that consumers are able to decide whether they want this overdraft coverage or not."

-- Reported by Joseph Woelfel and Laurie Kulikowski in New York.

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