WASHINGTON, DC – Today, chairs of the House and Senate finance committees introduced legislation that could rescind a rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) that required the nation’s largest banks and credit unions to lower the typical overdraft fee charge from around $35 to closer to the service’s actual cost to the institution – an estimated $5.
“This legislation should be called the ‘High Overdraft Fees Forever Act’ because it allows megabanks to continue to charge excessively high fees, while pretending that it is a ‘courtesy’ to extract hundreds of dollars each year from a working-class family,” said Nadine Chabrier, senior policy and litigation counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL). “Members of Congress who support this legislation would be allowing the largest financial institutions to keep perpetually price gouging consumers that can afford it least.”
As with other “Congressional Review Act” resolutions, this legislation is not subject to the Senate filibuster, so it requires only a simple majority to pass. If passed, the resolution would prohibit issuance of a new rule that is “substantially the same.”
###
Press Contact: Alfred King alfred.king@responsiblelending.org