Regions Bank has been ordered by The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to pay $191 million in refunds and fines for charging unlawful "surprise" overdraft fees on certain debit card transactions and ATM withdrawals.

According to the CFPB, Regions Bank engaged in unfair and abusive conduct by charging overdraft fees on transactions that were initially approved for consumers with sufficient account balances but not settled until later, when their accounts no longer had enough funds.

From August 2018 through July 2021, Regions Bank charged roughly $141 million of these "Authorized-Positive Overdraft Fees. As part of a consent order with the agency, the bank must refund this amount to affected customers and pay an additional $50 million civil penalty.

“Authorized-Positive Overdraft Fee” means an Overdraft Fee assessed on an Authorized-Positive Overdraft Transaction.

“Authorized-Positive Overdraft Transaction” means a transaction for which the customer’s account had sufficient available funds for the transaction at the time that Respondent authorized the transaction, but lacked sufficient available funds when the transaction later settled.

A copy of the CFPB Consent Decree can be found here: 1534000-1534825-cfpb_regions_bank-_consent-order_2022-09

Moreover, it is alleged that the bank’s financial statements were based, in part, on these ill-gotten-gains, as the Bank continued to charge Authorized-Positive Overdraft Fees for years while it pursued changes to generate alternative fee revenue that would fully offset its expected revenue loss from eventually eliminating the Authorized-Positive Overdraft Fees.

If you have held Regions Financial shares since on or before August 1, 2018, you may be able seek corporate reforms, the return of funds expended defending litigation back to company coffers, and potentially a court approved incentive award if appropriate.

If you would like to learn more about this matter at no cost to you, contact us at jgrabar@grabarlaw.com or call 267-507-6085.