The culprit is anti-money laundering (AML) rules that have added layers and layers of costs, making many 'normal' bank customers unprofitable.
And it's not just the fear of a whopping fine for allowing money laundering (although this is a real and reasonable concern). It's the running cost of certain account profiles, imposed by questionable AML rules.
Essentially, for compliance and also insurance purposes, banks need to do a risk assessment on each client. These are not cheap and are often unprofitable, especially on small accounts, making it a better business decision to just not serve low-income customers.
Drug dealers and money launderers also have erratic income. How can you tell them apart? Well, that kind of analysis will cost a lot of money, and you might get it wrong, so it's less risky to just de-bank anyone without a steady salary.
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