I agree that investing $100 in a stock isn't worth the time of a bank so the $10 fee they charge to purchase an ETF is high, but I think that would be the case

I agree that investing $100 in a stock isn't worth the time of a bank so the $10 fee they charge to purchase an ETF is high, but I think that would be the case for just about anyone because of the cost of even doing the book keeping, statements, etc. For instance, every ETF I invest in, I get the prospectus in the mail. That costs money to ship every year. They have to manage things like proxies voting as well. It's just not worth it to a bank. The $0.15 a year (15 bp of $100) in fees won't even coverage postage. Pay-day loans may appear sleazy but the companies that administer them don't have very high margins. There are risks to those loans and the small nature means that fixed costs are spread over a smaller base. You can review the financials of public companies in this space. EZCorp [0] and Cash America International [1] are in that space. Their last profit margins are 4.8% and -0.95%, respectively. Why are they so low? I don't know, but I don't claim to know enough about this market to make broad statements about exploitation or abuse. I just know that, like many markets in the US, there appear to be a low barrier to entry and competition eventually shrinks margins. Maybe you're right and they're doing some kind of financial trickery to appear as though they aren't making enormous profits, but if you believe that, by all means, enter the industry and change it from within. [0] http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=EZPW&source=story_quote_link http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=EZPW&source=story... [1] http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=CSH&source=story_quote_link http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=CSH&source=story_...