Brian Moynihan was impatient. It was August 2011, and the Bank of America Corp. chief executive officer was reviewing plans to impose a $5 monthly fee on debit-card users.
Joe Price, the company's retail head at the time, wanted to test the charge in small markets, as competitors JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. were doing. Moynihan, who had been in the job about 18 months, teased Price about his caution, according to four people with knowledge of the meeting at the bank's headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Then the CEO ordered his subordinate to roll out the fee coast to coast, say the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about the matter, Bloomberg Markets will report in its April issue.