Fed Reviews Overdraft Protection

By Brian O'Connell, staff writer at MainStreet.com

Do consumers really want bank overdraft protection?

That's a question the venerable Federal Reserve is studying in 2009. The Fed is mulling giving bank consumers the right to opt out of a bank overdraft program - and may even give consumers the right to have small debit card transactions canceled, rather than have them trigger an overdraft.

Public comments on two key consumer overdraft proposals from the Fed ended on March 30, and the Fed is expected to roll out its decision, most likely leading to some kind of overdraft reform, sometime this summer. The proposals would: ...