A recent survey of the five largest banks and five largest thrifts in 25 of the nation's biggest markets confirms what you already knew: Just 65 percent of noninterest accounts were free of monthly fees or balance requirements, the hallmark of the "free" checking account. That's down from 76 percent last year, according to Bankrate.

The trend toward free checking accounts has obviously reversed. But when you consider accounts that can be free under conditions given certain direct deposits and debit card arrangements, the total number of accounts offering free checking rises to 88 percent.

For banks, the revenue implications are still shaking out. No doubt there is less revenue from overdraft charges and soon there will be a lot less from interchange fees. But there are some offsets in the form of higher ATM fees, service fees and nonsufficient funds fees.

What will be interesting to monitor is whether this will lead to any changes by retail customers. Will people get more savvy with the way they bank? To what degree? In some sense, the industry would be wise if customers blithely paid the added fees.

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