This editorial appeared in The Washington Post:

Quick: exactly how much money do you have in the bank right now? You're probably not sure, especially if you share an account with someone else, a spouse, say, who doesn't necessarily check in with you every time he or she uses a debit card.

And so, from time to time, you may have found yourself inadvertently making a debit card purchase that exceeds your remaining funds. Alas, the way you may have found out about the overdraft was a notice from your bank, days later, informing you that you owe a $30 service fee.

The bank just automatically floated you a small loan and charged you for it without giving you a chance to accept or reject the offer.

Nothing in current law or regulations prevents banks from doing this, which is why banks' revenue from overdraft fees is projected to climb from $18 billion a decade ago to $38.5 billion this year.

No doubt our nation's troubled financial firms need all the cash they can get these days just to remain on sound footing. No doubt many consumers who received automatic overdraft protection were indeed glad that they got it, as the American Bankers Association argues. And, yes, in an ideal world, consumers would be responsible for precisely monitoring their personal cash flows.

Still, both the Federal Reserve and some members of Congress are starting to raise questions about this practice -- and they're right to do so. Average bank overdraft fees are rising at 4 percent a year -- well above inflation -- which suggests that banks are tapping their overdrawn customers for easy cash as opposed to merely covering transaction costs.

Last December, the Fed proposed a rule that would bar overdraft fees unless a consumer, upon opening an account, either declined to opt out of the service or affirmatively opted in.

Members of both the House and Senate are discussing even tougher approaches; Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, D-N.Y., suggests that banks give consumers a choice each time they are about to overdraw their accounts.

Congress will have to consider banks' legitimate concerns. Too much regulation of debit card overdrafts could, conceivably, inhibit consumer spending that would otherwise propel economic recovery. But transparency is the hallmark of a fair and efficient financial system.

Consumers are entitled to maximum feasible full disclosure, and under the current overdraft rules, they're not getting it.