Daily Data Dive: The High Cost Of Being A Bank

It has not been a great week for the nation’s four big banks.

JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo & Co and Citigroup Inc. have all reported profit declines during the last seven days. It isn’t that the big banks aren’t trying to make money or bring down their costs — all four started undertaking cost-cutting initiatives in 2011, only to find out that trimming all that “fat” didn’t move the needle very much for investors.

Banks may be leaner and meaner than ever before, but they still aren’t hitting their targets because, as it turns out, there are some big costs for big banks that just aren’t going anywhere. Costs such as:

$6.2 billion | JPMC’s quarterly profit.

$1 billion | What BoA CEO Brian Moynihan estimates his bank spends per year physically moving cash.

$15K-$65K | The average cost range for a new ATM machine

$165 | The monthly cost of maintaining an ATM

$9 | The annual cost of mailing customers their checking account statements