From the comment letter: NCUA’s proposal, which would permit federal credit unions (FCUs) to keep members’ negative account balances open for longer than the current limit of 45 days, offers no evidence that it will achieve its stated goal -- to provide relief to FCU members. At the same time, the proposal fails to consider the significant risks it poses...
Excessive overdraft fees charged by banks and credit unions can cause devastation for financially vulnerable families. Many lenders used predatory policies and practices designed to repeatedly extract excessive fees from customers who could least afford them. Overdraft fees are a leading cause of financial institutions closing a consumer’s account and reentry into the banking system often is exceedingly difficult, increasing the financial insecurity of many consumers. CRL advocates for legislators and regulators to rein in the size and frequency of these fees. We estimate that the savings from these fee eliminations will be between $3 billion to $4 billion for working families.
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Ten years after passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, with the country again facing an economic crisis, new polling data from Lake Research Partners, commissioned by the Center for Responsible Lending and Americans for Financial Reform shows that voters across all political parties are broadly and intensely supportive of strong consumer financial protections and of...
The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), Self-Help Federal Credit Union, Self-Help Credit Union, and the National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low income clients) (NCLC) write to share concerns with the Interim Final Rule on Overdraft Policy that was considered and tabled at NCUA’s May Board meeting. Unfortunately, the proposal fails to offer members relief from overdraft fees...
A review of 2019 data shows that big banks continue to collect over $11 billion in overdraft related fees each year. Banks engage in a number of abusive practices that combine to drain massive sums from their customers’ checking accounts. The large majority of these fees are shouldered by banks’ most vulnerable customers, often driving them out of the banking...
Even during the best economic times, overdraft fees are a tremendous drain on working families and often cause irreparable harm. The fees compound into hundreds per year for banks’ most financially distressed account holders and some even end up spending over a thousand dollars in overdraft fees. They drive people out of the banking system altogether, which disproportionately harms people...
The considerations prescribed by the RFA strongly support strengthening protections against overdraft fees on debit card and ATM transactions. More broadly, comprehensive reform of unfair and abusive overdraft practices is badly needed. The RFA sets forth five factors to consider in an RFA review. Consideration of these factors in the opt-in rule context shows clearly that any effort to weaken...
The 24 undersigned community, consumer, civil rights, and faith groups write regarding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or the Bureau)’s review of the 2009 Regulation E overdraft opt-in rule under the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA). Weakening the opt-in rule in any way is clearly unsupportable; rather, protections against unfair and abusive overdraft fees should be substantially strengthened. Today’s overdraft...
Financial institutions drain billions of dollars annually from their customers through abusive overdraft fee practices. Frequently marketed as a “customer service,” overdraft fees are charged when a customer’s account lacks sufficient funds to cover a transaction and the institution pays the transaction anyway. The institution then repays itself the value of the overdraft transactions and all accompanying fees from the...
According to new data released recently by the FDIC, the largest banks in America collected $11.45 billion in overdraft and non-sufficient funds (NSF) fees from American consumers in 2017, an increase of approximately $10 million over the 2016 total. Overdraft fees often impose a great burden on those already living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to make ends meet. Typically, a...
The “Stop Overdraft Profiteering Act of 2018,” introduced by Senators Booker and Brown, would address extremely high-cost overdraft fees financial institutions charge on checking accounts. Banks’ overdraft practices exploit the financially vulnerable, leaving them worse off and driving many from the banking system altogether. The bill would establish reasonable safeguards for checking account holders; restore transparency to the checking account...