The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today issued a final rule to cap most overdraft fees at $5 for checking accounts offered by the largest banks with over $10 billion in assets. The bureau estimates the rule will save consumers up to $5 billion a year. The rule aims to close a loophole in the regulations that exempted overdraft fees as a finance charge, allowing financial institutions to impose huge fees on their customers. In the Bureau’s press release, CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said the loophole “has drained billions of dollars from Americans’ deposit accounts.”
A few years ago, several big banks eliminated or reduced their overdraft fees. The CFPB noted that last year consumers still paid a total of nearly $6 billion in overdrafts.
