The removal of ATM withdrawal fees by a number of banks reduced total bank fees charged to households in 2018. But this was largely offset by the continued increase in small business fees. Overall, fee income was little changed last year, an annual assessment published by the RBA in its quarterly Bulletin shows.Household fees fell 6.5 per cent year-on-year to A$4.2 billion. Business fees rose 2.7 per cent to $8.8 billion. Total bank fee income of $12.9 billion was down 0.4 per cent.Household fees are made up of credit card, housing loans and deposit fees. The fall in fee income was largely the result of a fall in fee income from household deposits and housing loans.Fee income from deposits fell 19.9 per cent. Most of this was due to the removal by a number of banks, including the majors, of ATM withdrawal fees charged to cardholders from other financial institutions. There was also a decline in the use of ATMs.The fall in fees on housing loans was a result of lower loan volumes.Fees from credit cards continued to grow, although at a slower rate of 2.2 per cent (compared with an average of 4.8 per cent over the previous five years).Growth in business fee income came largely from an 8 per cent increase in income from merchant service fees on card transactions. Merchant service fees make up 36 per cent of business fee income.This growth was achieved in spite of the impact of a change of interchange fee standards, which took effect in July 2017. These standards lowered the benchmark for debit card interchange.