Overdraft Fee Class-Action Settlements
Overdraft
Fee Class-Action Settlements
theintelhub.com
November 30, 2012
public at-large. The Major Banks, including TD Bank, JPMorgan, RBS Citizens Bank, Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America have recently
offered massive settlements on Class-Action Lawsuits
over Overdraft Fees
and other criminal activity – need I say more…
settlement of $62 million.
Finance:
Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) is the
latest to join the ever-growing list of banks facing litigation over misconduct
and malpractices concerning overdraft fees. The bank has agreed to pay $62
million in settlement of a lawsuit filed against it by its customers accusing
it of unreasonable assessment and collection of overdraft fees. However, the
settlement requires approval from the U.S. District Judge in Miami.
Background
The customers accused
TD Bank of regularly dealing with transactions pertaining to debit cards in the
order of magnitude of the transaction rather than the chronological order.
The
intentional malpractices resulted in faster negative balances in customers’
accounts, leading to a larger number of overdrawn transactions, each of which
then became chargeable. Consequently, overdraft fees piled up in excess. Moreover, TD Bank violated the
U.S. Federal Reserve’s regulation of obtaining customer approval before
charging any overdraft fees.
Other banks have offered
similar settlements. Of particular interest in the Yahoo! Finance article
posted Tue,
May 15, 2012 5:55 PM EDT are:
Groupplc (RBS) has
agreed to disburse $137.5 million to settle the lawsuit filed against it by the
customers, accusing it of fraudulent transaction entries to procure larger
overdraft fees.
& Co. (JPM) was asked to pay
$110 million to clear up a similar lawsuit filed against it.
settlements are still subject to approval of the District Judge in the case.
According to the Yahoo!
Finance article, in 2011:
Bank of America Corporation (BAC)
shelled out $410 million to the customers to resolve similar claims.
And,
Fargo & Co. (WFC) was
ordered to repay $203 million by the U.S. District Court of Northern California
to recompense customers who had sued the company for charging unfair overdraft
fees.
mentioned, Yahoo! Finance provides links to Zacks Investment
Research reports on the individual banks
is an article on Forbes, by Halah
Touryalai, Forbes Staff, who goes into great detail on the
practices of these banks. One particular part of the article is reproduced here
— the article is highly recommended reading.
suits says bank overdraft banks charged consumers nearly $40 billion in
overdraft fees during 2009 alone. (In 2011, the figure is estimated at around $30
billion.) From the law firm:
practice of re-sequencing their customers’ debit card, ATM and check card
transactions from highest to lowest dollar amount (as opposed to the order in
which the transactions actually occurred). This enabled these banks to
increase their overdraft fee revenues, and thus their profits, at the expense
of their customers.
Source:
RESEARCH:
an American multinational banking corporation of securities, investments and retail. It is the largest bank in the United States
by assets.[2] It is a major provider of financial services, with assets of $2 trillion and according to Forbes magazine is
the world’s second largest public company based on a composite ranking.[3] The hedge fund unit of JPMorgan Chase is one of the largest
hedge funds in the United States.[4] It was formed
in 2000, when Chase Manhattan Corporation
merged with J.P. Morgan & Co.[5]
*****
and writer for theintelhub.com a popular alternative news
website.
NESARA- Restore America – Galactic News
2012-12-02 23:06:41
Source: http://nesaranews.blogspot.com/2012/12/overdraft-fee-class-action-settlements.html
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