New National Fee Tracking Database Gives Banks and Credit Unions Live Competitive Information on Retail Deposit Fees.

San Anselmo, CA, USA — Market Rates Insight, Inc., the leader in financial services pricing intelligence for deposits, personal loans, mortgages, and fees, today announced the launch of FeeBuilder™, the first live retail deposit fees database for financial institutions (FIs). FeeBuilder is a subscription-based, interactive, decision-support fees database that helps financial institutions (FIs) make up-to-the-moment observations about retail FI deposit fees nationwide. The latest FDIC data shows that consumer overdraft charges, periodic maintenance charges, and ATM fees alone make up more than 50 percent of service charges on deposit accounts. FeeBuilder provides a competitive benchmark for FIs to optimize competitive deposit account fees instantly, and to answer off-cycle fee questions.

FeeBuilder was designed to help FI decision-making for competitive deposit fees. It provides instant peer-to-peer analyses at the national, state, and local level with comprehensive competitive fee data on checking, savings, money market accounts, and certificates of deposit. FeeBuilder covers overdraft, non-sufficient funds (NSF), monthly service fees, ATM fees, and wire transfer. Users can segment by product, geographic market, and by FI. FeeBuilder includes access to deposit fees at 95 percent of banks with over $10 billion in assets, 98 percent of credit unions with more than $1 billion, and all significant direct banks. With 1,700 FIs and growing, this database is essential for FIs that depend on deposit fee revenue, and it is the first and only fees tracking service to offer daily updates for immediate decision support.

With interest rates still at record lows, FIs are increasingly dependent on deposit fees for revenue. In fact, overdraft fees have become a primary source of revenue, accounting for nearly $32 billion in 2013. Very soon, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will issue new overdraft guidelines that will affect some fee revenue.

“FI margin squeeze is real. Banks and credit unions are facing mounting market and regulatory pressures at a time when the velocity of change and demands for transparency are overwhelming,” said Rick Barham, founder and CEO of Market Rates Insight. “It’s more important than ever to be able to have a fast and accurate fees benchmark. Aligning your deposit fees with live market data not only helps you keep pace with the competition, but it also means you aren’t leaving potential revenue on the table. FeeBuilder helps our clients stay one step ahead, and it answers their most pressing questions.”

FeeBuilder is essential for executives who need to set deposit fees or develop new financial products. FeeBuilder can be applied in a number of ways:

1. FeeBuilder answers off-cycle questions about fees without the usual delay of waiting for a custom fee study.
2. FeeBuilder helps FIs locate alternative revenue sources to Overdraft.
3. FeeBuilder provides a competitive benchmark for current and new products.
4. FeeBuilder reveals market trends by geography, product category, and institution.
5. FeeBuilder shows where the CFPB is exerting influence on OD with live market data.
6. FeeBuilder also is valuable for business development, opening new markets, and M&A strategies.

FeeBuilder is delivered as a quarterly report and on-demand. The data is structured as a comprehensive spreadsheet that provides snapshots that can be manipulated for inclusion in reports, projections, and presentations.

Included with the FeeBuilder subscription is a quarterly bonus look at the data via TrendSpotter, showing fee changes highlighted by product category or institution. TrendSpotter quickly reveals how the industry is responding to consumer and regulatory pressure regarding fees, and it shows accumulated changes by fee at the national level.

For more information, visit http://www.marketratesinsight.com.

About Market Rates Insight
For over 30 years, Market Rates Insight has helped banking executives make better informed pricing decisions. The company serves banks and credit unions nationally with competitive information on deposits, consumer loans, mortgages, and fees. Market Rates Insight provides the most granular historical and refresh pricing data in the industry, helping financial decision makers plan and prepare for likely changes in rates and products. The company’s cloud-based system provides timely and precise competitive data supported by usable graphs and charts.

Market Rates Insight is located in San Anselmo, California. For more information, see http://www.marketratesinsight.com.

Artwork available upon request.

Media Contact:
Tom Woolf
Market Rates Insight
(415) 259-5638
tom.woolf@marketratesinsight.com
http://www.marketratesinsight.com