Nov. 1--It might be a culmination of a year's worth of public outrage over bank bailouts and executive bonuses. Or maybe it's a bid to head off proposed new federal regulations targeting practices such as fee gouging.

Whatever the reason, the three largest banking players in the Inland region -- Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Chase, holding more than $18 billion in local deposits among them -- recently announced a slew of changes affecting the fees they charge customers who spend beyond their account balances. For instance, they're easing back on the frequency with which they penalize customers for overdrafts while letting them opt out of coverage, though they're not reducing or eliminating most of the lucrative overdraw fees.

Greg McBride, senior financial analyst with Florida-based Bankrate.com, which tracks consumer banking and credit trends, said banks are looking to bolster their public images. At the same time, they're dealing with the reality that rising numbers of people, in places such as the Inland region, are being hurt by home foreclosures, overdrawn accounts and tough-to-get credit, among other problems.

A bigger motivator is government pressure. McBride said fee policy changes are "without a doubt" spurred by talk in Washington about beefing up oversight of banking practices.

"We're seeing the same thing that happened when government went after the credit card companies' gotcha practices; they started to back off of those," he said. "The banking industry is moving toward being a partner with the customer instead of an adversary."

But there are no signs yet that the relationship will include price breaks on certain services.

Bank fees have gone up each of the past 11 years that Bankrate has been tracking them. In its 2009 national survey, it found that the average bank overdraft fee was $28.95, up 2.1 percent from a year ago. Consumers now pay an average of $12.55 a month in checking account maintenance fees, up 5 percent from 2008.

In August, the financial research firm Moebs Services reported that U.S. banks this year will collect a record $38.5 billion in overdraft fees, with almost all of that revenue flowing from just 10 percent of customers.

Bank of America, with 95 Inland offices holding more than $8.8 billion in deposits, recently announced new policies that took effect Oct. 19. The bank now will not charge overdraft fees when an account is overdrawn by a total amount of less than $10 for one day, and will not charge fees on more than four items per day. It has also improved the process for customers to opt out of overdraft coverage, which pays the charge but assesses a fee.

Effective in June, the bank will introduce an annual limit on the number of times customers can overdraw accounts at the point of sale when they don't have sufficient funds. Also, customers will have the choice to "opt into" overdraft coverage when they open accounts.