October 26, 2009— The Center for Responsible Lending, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, National Consumer Law Center, on behalf of its low-income clients, and U.S. PIRG applaud Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney as she renews her push for overdraft reform with the "Overdraft Protection Act of 2009" (H.R. 3904), introduced last week.
Momentum in Congress toward substantive reform is building and welcome. Abuses have rapidly thrust consumer overdraft fees to well over $20 billion per year.
Rep. Maloney's bill, like similar legislation introduced last week by Senator Dodd, would give consumers an informed choice on whether they want to pay for high-cost overdraft coverage; would limit the number of fees charged per month and per year; and would make fees reasonable and proportional to the bank's cost of covering a shortfall. Both bills would also ban the widespread bank practice of triggering avoidable overdraft fees by re-ordering customer transactions to maximize overdrafts.
We applaud the co-sponsors of H.R. 3904 and thank Congresswoman Maloney for her longstanding leadership on this issue. We urge Congress to pass comprehensive overdraft reform as soon as possible.
For more information: Kathleen Day at (202) 349-1871 or kathleen.day@responsiblelending.org; Ginna Green at (510) 379-5513 or ginna.green@responsiblelending.org; or Charlene Crowell at (919) 313-8523 or charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org.