Unsatisfactory retail banking

There was a time when banks gave modest interest on deposits, and all routine customer services were free. The bank covered its operating costs by investing its depositors' funds. This was sufficient for most people. Now banks offer an ever growing and changing variety of accounts and services, assisted by computer technology. Negative aspects of the transition in retail banking are the impersonal nature of automatic services, confusion over the multiplicity of items, hidden or opaque charges, deductions from accounts without approval, attrition of the importance of a relationship of trust in banking, failure to act on informal agreements or to meet customers' reasonable expectations, rapid changes in interest rates, lack of notice of changes and "high-handed" or insensitive behaviour by banking staff.