It’s sad that this is newsworthy, but… Bank of America has apparently streamlined their account disclosure forms, distilling pages and pages of account policies and fee listings down to one page (technically two printed pages since it’s front-back).
Such disclosure changes have been advocated by the Pew Charitable Trust, who found back in April 2011 that the median length of bank disclosures for checking accounts was a whopping 111 (!) pages. Who reads 111 pages when opening an account? Nearly nobody. Thus, consumers have been largely in the dark about their account policies.
With Bank of America’s announcement, five of the nation’s twelve largest banks have adopted a simplified disclosure format and I’m assuming it’s only a matter of time before the rest buckle to market pressures.
