In common parlance, the term often relates to charges in respect of personal current accounts or checking account.
[3] They also include overdraft fees or non-sufficient funds (NSF) fees for exceeding authorized overdraft limits, or making payments (or attempting to make payments) where no authorized overdraft exists.
Bank fees were initially designed to recover the cost of processing transactions such as cheques.
The overdraft fee was also designed as a penalty for unauthorised lending from the bank, but regulators and governments have pushed back against fees that are designed as penalties.
Consumer laws in a number of countries have forced banks to not charge fees beyond what is reasonably necessary to recover their costs.