Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued the following announcement on July 20.
Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau) filed in federal district court a proposed settlement with TCF National Bank regarding its marketing and sale of overdraft services. TCF National Bank is headquartered in Wayzata, Minn., and operates approximately 318 retail branches across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Colorado, Arizona, and South Dakota.
Banks must first obtain a consumer’s consent before they can lawfully charge overdraft fees on one-time debit purchases and ATM withdrawals. The Bureau alleged in its lawsuit that, when attempting to obtain this consent, TCF obscured the fees it charged and made consenting to overdraft fees seem mandatory for new customers to open an account. TCF has agreed to pay $25 million in restitution to customers who were charged overdraft fees and has agreed to an injunction to prevent future violations. The proposed order filed today would also impose a civil money penalty of $5 million. This penalty would be adjusted to account for a $3 million penalty imposed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in a separate order entered today. Today’s action was taken in coordination with the OCC, with which the Bureau worked closely on this matter.
The proposed stipulated final judgment and order is available at: https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/bcfp_tcf-national-bank_proposed-stipulated-final-judgment-order_2018-07.pdf
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The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection is a 21st century agency that helps consumer finance markets work by regularly identifying and addressing outdated, unnecessary, or unduly burdensome regulations, by making rules more effective, by consistently enforcing federal consumer financial law, and by empowering consumers to take more control over their economic lives. For more information, visit consumerfinance.gov.
Original source can be found here.