One of my banks limits passwords to something like 12 characters. I called and asked why, their response was "because it's hard enough to remember 12 characters!".
My bank says that too but it's really just 6 numbers because the characters map to the same numbers as on a telephone's key pad. So, if your password is ABC123, it's really just "222123", and both will work to log in.
My bank only allows passwords to be made of 5 numbers.
The interesting thing to note is that if they had any significant problem with this scheme, they would have changed it. Maybe we worry too much about the strength of passwords. The password verification process may be hardened enough, even for the needs of a bank.
sigh