If customers are afraid of the fees, they're more likely to keep some minimum balance in their account. Checking accounts don't generally provide interest (or at best, token interest). Multiplied by millions of customers, that $200 sitting in checking rather than savings, CDs, or other instruments is a nice chunk of change for the bank to loan out.
I'd want to see some numbers here. But the fees might be directly predatory or they might just be high enough to offset the cost of actually overdrafting to the actual predatory behavior of trying to force people to bank more of their money with lower interest rates.
Exactly. The checking vs savings thing is bogus too. I asked the banker when I opened my first account as a kid, what's the point of using the checking account at all, she had no answer.
I'd want to see some numbers here. But the fees might be directly predatory or they might just be high enough to offset the cost of actually overdrafting to the actual predatory behavior of trying to force people to bank more of their money with lower interest rates.