The news: US banks collected $1.6 billion in overdraft fees in Q3 2026, up 9.4% quarter over quarter and the highest quarterly total in four years, according to Reuters calculations. 

• Overdraft fee revenues have climbed 23% since Q1 2025, when President Donald Trump took office.
• JPMorganChase and Wells Fargo collected a combined $590 million in Q3 2026, roughly as much as the other 18 largest banks combined.
• First-Citizens Bank’s overdraft fee revenues have surged 200% since Q1 2025, the largest increase among the 50 biggest US lenders.

But as Democrats prepare to take control of Congress,  overdraft fees could turn into a political liability. Banks that help customers avoid overdraft charges could win customer trust and political goodwill as fee-heavy rivals get caught in the hot seat. 

Why it matters: Sen. Elizabeth Warren is expected to chair the Senate Banking Committee and give bank fees more scrutiny after the Trump administration rolled back consumer protections.

Last year Congress repealed a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule that would have capped overdraft fees at $5 per transaction. Warren can’t reinstate the rule on her own, but she doesn’t necessarily need to: Committee hearings, investigations, and demands for information give her a platform to pressure banks over their fee practices and scrutinize the administration’s weakening of CFPB oversight.

Implications for banks: Real-time low-balance notifications, advance warnings about upcoming payments, and alerts when transactions would trigger fees help customers avoid overdrafts. 

And those types of alerts are some of the most in-demand mobile banking features according to our Mobile Banking Emerging Features Benchmark, yet not all banks offer such alerts. Automatic savings transfers, customizable balance thresholds, grace periods, and short-term liquidity tools give customers more control over cash flow.