That article itself points out why it doesn't necessarily apply today: > Banks make money off consumers by a mix of payment revenue (typically interchange, wir

That article itself points out why it doesn't necessarily apply today: > Banks make money off consumers by a mix of payment revenue (typically interchange, wire fees etc), net interest margin (the spread between what banks earn lending money and what they pay as interest on your checking and savings accounts) and other fees (monthly fees, dormant account fees, overdraft fees etc). Over the last 2 decades, as interest rates have hovered at all time lows, the mix of revenue from depository consumer banking has shifted heavily to payment & fee based revenue, and less on net interest margin. In addition, if you were a bank customer that lived paycheck to paycheck (or otherwise had high income and expense volatility) then your bank couldn’t rely on net interest margin to monetize you anyway, and relied much more heavily on fees. Interest rates are no longer at an all time low, so the shift in how banks make money is already underway. The article also mentions high infrastructure costs for banks ($36/year/account), but many banks (and especially credit unions) have had massive migrations over the last five years on to newer infrastructure. If anything, this article makes it clear to me that there are a lot of systems in place here beyond just the interchange fee.