The most basic feature of a typical banking arrangement, a checking account, is getting more expensive.

FORBES: The Poor Are Priced Out of Checking Accounts

Under the banking code, UK banks are supposed to allow all consumers to open a basic current account.

BBC: A cheque being written

The biggest mistake Citi and other banks made during the boom, he said, was coming to believe that investing and trading on their own account, rather than on behalf of their clients, was a basic aspect of banking.

NEWYORKER: What Good Is Wall Street?