Overdrafts

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At the end of last month, former New York Governor Cuomo signed into law a bill that amends the state’s Banking Law to require banks to follow certain check processing practices.  The amendments become effective on January 1, 2022.

The new law applies to “consumer checking accounts” offered by “banking institutions.”… Continue Reading

This past Tuesday, Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu appeared as a witness at the Senate Banking Committee’s hearing, “Oversight of Regulators: Does our Financial System Work for Everyone?”

In his written and oral testimony, Mr. Hsu stressed as an overall theme the need for the OCC to prohibit “predatory and discriminatory practices while promoting financial inclusion.”  … Continue Reading

Afterpay, a buy-now, pay-later company, is facing a putative class action lawsuit in a California federal district court. The complaint alleges that Afterpay misled customers in representing that its services allowed customers to “pay for purchases at a later date, with no interest, no fees, and no hassle” when “there are huge, undisclosed fees and interest associated with using the service.”… Continue Reading

Mr. Hunt shares his perspective on a range of issues, including how Rohit Chopra, CFPB Director-nominee, is likely to approach his new role, the CFPB’s likely approach to innovation and overdraft rulemaking under Mr. Chopra’s leadership, how banks are engaging with data aggregators, the OCC’s role and expectations for a new Comptroller, the status of Community Reinvestment Act rulemaking, and the potential for legislative changes.… Continue Reading

An article recently published by the Brookings Institution as an op-ed entitled “A few small banks have become overdraft giants” serves as a warning that bank overdraft practices are likely to face increased attention from the “new CFPB.”

Authored by Aaron Klein, a Brookings Senior Fellow, the article reports that overdraft revenues accounted for more than half of the net income of six small banks in 2020 and criticizes regulators for “tolerat[ing] banks that are mostly or entirely dependent on overdraft fees for profitability.” … Continue Reading

24 state attorneys general, the D.C. attorney general, and the Executive Director of the Hawaii Office of Consumer Protection have sent a joint comment letter to the CFPB urging it not to make any changes to the Regulation E rule that limits the ability of financial institutions to charge overdraft fees for paying ATM and one-time debit card transactions that overdraw a consumer’s account (Overdraft Rule). … Continue Reading

Last week, the FDIC published its Consumer Compliance Supervisory Highlights that provides observations about its consumer compliance supervision activities in 2018. Importantly, the highlights include anonymized 2018 exam findings regarding violations of consumer protection laws and other information to help financial institutions stay abreast of issues and trends identified during exams and assist them in mitigating potential risks.… Continue Reading

The CFPB has published a notice in the Federal Register announcing that it plans to seek OMB approval to conduct online testing of ATM/overdraft disclosures with 8,000 individuals.  Comments are due on or before January 16, 2018.

According to the notice, the testing “will explore consumer comprehension and decision-making in response to overdraft disclosure forms. … Continue Reading

This past January, the CFPB filed a lawsuit against TCF National Bank in Minnesota federal district court that alleged that the bank, in connection with offering overdraft services, violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act’s UDAAP prohibition and Regulation E (which implements the Electronic Funds Transfer Act).  Earlier this month, the district court granted in part TCF’s motion to dismiss the CFPB’s amended complaint and dismissed with prejudice the CFPB’s Regulation E claims. … Continue Reading