overdraft fee

A global provider of financial services Fiserv announced its Revenue Expansion program specifically developed to help banks and credit unions impacted by Regulation E. as is known on November 12, 2009, the US Federal Reserve Board published a final rule under Regulation E that prohibits financial institutions from charging overdraft fees for ATM or one-time debit card transactions, unless a consumer opts-in to the overdraft service.

Well Fargo was ordered by a federal judge to pay California consumers $203 million in restitution for claims that it had manipulated transactions to maximize the overdraft fees it charged, reports the New York Times.

A judge in San Francisco found that instead of processing transactions in an order they were received the bank started with largest and went to smallest further. In his 90-page opinion United States District Judge William Alsup wrote that the practice was unfair and deceptive.

 Bank of America, Wachovia, U.S. Bank, JPMorgan Chase and Citibank were sued in a class action case that was filed by US consumers with the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami for abusive overdraft fees, reported Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP.

 After Bank of America announced its plans to change its fee structure JPMorgan Chase & Co and Wells Fargo & Co announced on Wednesday they are eliminating some overdraft fees altogether and trimming others.

The banks have changed their policies as US Congress members criticized bank account fees and come as the banks digest rule changes for credit card fees.