为什么要再次审查借记卡透支费？

而银行家则说，并不是市场促使消费者签约，而是消费者想要获得能够在紧急时刻透支的能力。美国银行协会的Richard Riese 表示，从这方面来讲就可以略知一二。即使消费者不完全明白透支费，他们也知道每月要有结算，而且可以随时选择退出这个机构。如果他们认为这不是他们想要的，那么他们会立即选择离开。

银行的宣传活动也在消费者金融保护局（CFPB）的审查范围之内。CFPB表示，他们将会询问银行相关信息，看银行是否做到了让消费者完全知情，而且知道该如何避免支付不必要的钱。同时，也会查看银行是如何重复进行大笔交易，而不是按照时间顺序进行的。这种做法让交易顺利进行，但是却让消费者另外支付许多笔交易金。银行没有控制支付顺序和时间，但是却规定了支付顺序和时间，并且严格执行。

Richard Cordray，消费者金融保护局主任表示，他所领导的机构正在审查透支费问题，因为透支费始终能够对消费者，尤其是底层消费者造成经济损失。这种针对银行产品的不同观点——消费者选择和潜在的滥用行为，总是会出现在行业与行业监督机构之间。

Bankers, for their part, say it wasn’t marketing that led consumers to sign up—it’s because consumers want the ability to overdraw their accounts in a pinch. “This can be a way of getting piece of mind,” says the American Bankers Association’s Richard Riese. He says even if a consumer didn’t fully understand the overdraft fees when he signed up, he’d get notice of the fee on a monthly statement and could opt out at any time. “The light bulb would have gone off real fast if it wasn’t what they wanted,” he says.

The marketing campaigns are part of the CFPB’s review. The agency says it will ask banks for information so it can see whether consumers are fairly informed about the fees and understand how to avoid paying extra. The CFPB is also taking a look at how some banks reorder purchases to process the largest ones first, instead of in chronological order. That allows big purchases to go through, but can leave customers paying overdraft fees for several small transactions. “Banks aren’t manipulating payment order; they are setting a payment order and following it,” says the ABA’s Riese.

Richard Cordray, the CFPB’s director, says his agency is looking at overdraft programs because they still have “the capacity to inflict serious economic harm on the people who can least afford it.” That very different view of bank products—consumer choice vs. potential abuse—is likely to come up frequently between the industry and its new watchdog.