BB&T: New debit rule will lead to new fees, fewer rewards

“Well, we’ll clearly have to find ways to reduce cost and raise revenue or eliminate the product. If it goes through, what we think now is we’ll have to reduce the rewards program that we had, which was a benefit to the consumer but it was a cost to us. And we’ll undoubtedly have to have a charge for a debit card. Today it’s free. Going forward there’ll have to be a charge. We hate that for the consumer but there’s simply no way we can literally lose money on every transaction.”