The House voted Wednesday to overturn a rule that would have limited bank overdraft fees to $5, following the Senate in moving to dismantle the regulation that the Biden administration had estimated would save consumers billions of dollars.
The cost to overdraw a bank account could drop to as little as $3 under a proposal announced by the White House, the latest effort by the Biden administration to combat fees it says pose an unnecessary burden on American consumers, particularly those living paycheck to paycheck.
Some banks that charged multiple nonsufficient funds fees on a single item plan to refund the fees to consumers, and most of these institutions supervised by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have decided to eliminate nonsufficient funds fees altogether, the CFPB said in a statement yesterday.
While the Massachusetts banking and lending industries had entered 2022 expecting to feel effects from inflation and potentially higher interest rates, the rapid changes to economic conditions came without warning.
Fresh attention from financial regulators towards non-sufficient funds fees for re-presented transactions is pushing banks to eliminate or dramatically cut these NSF charges.
