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Never content to pass savings along to customers, banks – with a little help from their friends in Congress – are again poised to turn a basic service into a profit center.

Last week, federal law began allowing banks greater latitude to process checks electronically, reducing to minutes or hours the time it takes for the money to be deducted from a check writer’s account. But there is no change in the length of time that banks can hold deposited checks before making the funds available – up to two days for local checks, five days for nonlocal checks and 11 days for checks over $5,000. So in addition to saving an estimated $2 billion a year in paper processing costs, the banks will make loads of money on the float.

And not just from that. By processing checks faster while placing holds on deposits, banks are increasing the chances of bouncing a check. As banks start using the new procedures, unsuspecting consumers will bounce an estimated seven million more checks a month and pay an additional $170 million in monthly bounced-check fees. Worse yet, to promptly correct problems that may arise from electronic processing, such as double payment of a single check or payment in the wrong amount, the new rules require a customer to present a copy of the check’s electronic image, known as a “substitute check.” There’s nothing to prevent a bank from charging a fee for providing the copy.