In the end, Bank of America had no choice but to scrap its maligned debit card fee.

The public and political backlash against its new debit card fee was much more extreme than it expected. Other big banks were backing away, as were smaller regional banks. Regulators were upset. Politicians were livid. Competitors were going for blood, as were consumer protestors. Staying the course would have made it the lone national bank charging such a fee. This sort of negative differentiation would only have exacerbated the wounds, which we have to say were at least partially self-inflicted.

This qualifies as huge marketing misstep. The analysts simply didn't get it right. They failed to account for public reaction, that's for sure. They likely underestimated the number of accounts they would lose. The rollout model may also have assumed that other national banks would follow suit and impose similar fees permanently. But that too turned out to be wrong.

In hindsight, the rollout seemed a bit aggressive. True, the bank did the right thing by publicizing the fee well in advance of the actual date it would be levied. But look at how Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase handled the rollouts. They opted for pilot programs, which were put in place only in specific states. While many expected the fees to be rolled out nationwide, the limited pilots certainly did not lead to the sort of backlash Bank of America suffered. And the banks retained enough flexibility to scrap the idea, which they have now done. CEO Brian Moynihan likely got some bad internal advice on this one.

Now that the fee is history, the bank is right back in a familar position. It will have no choice but to find other ways to generate revenue to offset the effects of the card reform, particularly the Durbin Amendment. Will it trend back toward hidden fees? TheAtlantic online makes an interesting point when it suggests that the debit card fee can be seen as an attempt at fee transparency, which many people sought so ardently criticized. Why should it be condemned for that?   

I doubt that banks will resort to the sort of hidden charges that got it into so much regulatory trouble just recently. Consumer activists will not let them get away with much.  Neither will state and federal regulators. Banks' every move right now is under the microscope. Which brings us right back to the question we've been asking for a while now: what's next? The industry is desperately searching for a new stream of revenue that apparently can only be borne by new services. The industry needs to innovate? Unfortunately, I can't see another big revenue stream materializing. Can you?