MSB Service Charges

I was wondering how much of a service charge everyone else has for MSBs. Just curious.

12 CFR §7.4002 National bank charges.
(b) Considerations. (1) All charges and fees should be arrived at by each bank on a competitive basis and not on the basis of any agreement, arrangement, undertaking, understanding, or discussion with other banks or their officers.

Just call me the devil's advocate here... or just the devil, but, what's the primary purpose of that? To avoid price fixing? To keep bankers from talking to each other?

What's to keep someone from just calling other banks and getting that information?

Jimbo, I don't think you will find a bank that will discuss product pricing just on a phone call. IMHO.

Besides - if you find the magic number that:

a) Covers your costs for monitoring and makes the account profitable, and

b) Is acceptable to the customer

Why would you want to share that knowledge with your competitors?

Compliance practices and techniques are one thing to share. Market strategy is something else entirely.

The analogy that I draw is this:

Compliance Officers are like battlefield medics. You give aid to any wounded person on the battlefield regardless if that person is friend or foe. Likewise, if you see a medic from "the other side" and that medic is in need of bandages, you provide what you can spare. Likewise, if you are in need of something, the other medic will assist. That is why we all congregate on these threads and brainstorm solutions.

Marketing strategy, pricing, customer relationships, etc., are like the soldiers in the battlefield. There is no collaboration with the "enemy."

I think the question you want to ask is what (# of deposits, # of items in the deposits, return items, average balances, staff salary/benefits costs, etc.) do you take into consideration to establish a charge for MSBs. You should be asking for methodology, not a price.