Banks in the U.S. charged customers $145 million in fees last year for writing checks that bounced because of "uncollected funds." That is banking jargon for deposits that have not yet been credited to a customer's account during a holding period, as long as three weeks for out-of-town drafts, that the institutions have traditionally imposed as both a precaution against bad checks and a way to profit from the float. But the consumer frustration of waiting for a check to clear will be vastly reduced by new U.S. regulations that took effect last week. The law requires that checks drawn on...
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