During an economic recession, or rather a depression, I do not expect any business to behave in my best interest. What I do expect is ethical conduct from an American company vested in our economic survival. As a consumer bank dealing mostly with middle income customers, Fifth Third is opportunizing on shrinking American bank accounts by charging unethical overdraft fees and fuzzy accounting.
Example: Fifth Third charged me hundreds of dollars in overdrafts on debits that were listed as POSTED, claiming that since the merchant had not yet assumed payment the debits were in a third category of debits that were "technically" not paid, thus allowing them to overdraft debits that, by my accounting were paid, not PENDING.
I know this makes no sense. That was my argument. How could debits that were posted suddenly become pending? Well, there's the "overdraft matrix" that suspends debits until the time that the bank wants to post them—allowing the bank to send through payments when it is beneficial to them.
Of course, no banker will admit this. They will, however, admit that they flag accounts for multiple charges, or that as a consumer I am an idiot and deserve the condescension that comes with going negative on your account. The customer service center is rude and unapologetically ruthless.
So, this American bank acts as a mercenary profiteer, charging consumers outrageous fees while helping to destroy the very economic base they are preying on. Ultimately, they will go under, since they aren't one of the big commercial players—and from my research enjoys a bailout from average Americans instead of from the government like Bank of America. Oh, wait, you mean that bailout money came from my taxes? I forgot, the rich get rich and the poor stay poor.
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