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As long as they keep other people’s money, they make money on it.

This is arguable for HSBC (in the UK at least). Ringfencing laws post 2008 have made customer deposits in the UK very difficult to invest profitably, to the point where (at least last time I cared about this) they were charging commercial customers to have UK domiciled accounts.

> Ringfencing laws post 2008 have made customer deposits in the UK very difficult to invest profitably, to the point where (at least last time I cared about this) they were charging commercial customers to have UK domiciled accounts.

I don't follow; why would regulations on consumer accounts change the price of commercial customer accounts?

Small businesses accounts were/are also subject to ring fencing, and my recollection is that large banks sought to recover the costs of ringfencing rules via charges on large clients.

Come to think of it this was all also at the time of very low rates which was more likely to be the issue.

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