CRL submitted a comment on the CFPB’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on overdraft fees for very large institutions. We advocate for a $6 benchmark and safe harbor for courtesy overdraft fees. We argue the proposed rule is a required and important step towards better protecting consumers that would be greatly improved by eliminating the potential for financial institutions to evade the intent behind the exemption by further narrowing it to include parameters on: (1) limitations on the frequency and total number of overdrafts, (2) precluding fees for de minimis overdraft amounts, and (3) requiring a uniform grace period before overdraft charges can be assessed–policies that a number of responsible, large financial institutions have increasingly adopted in order to ensure fairness to their consumers. These additional restrictions are not only good for consumers, but they also ensure that the industry will be unable to “game” the Bureau’s proposed benchmark-overdraft fee by repeatedly imposing the fee on multiple transactions.
