PNC Bank reached a $90 million settlement this week in a class-action lawsuit over excessive overdraft fees, the latest of several big banks to do so.
The agreement, filed Tuesday in Miami federal court, must be approved by U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King, who is overseeing similar lawsuits that were consolidated against approximately 30 banks. Lawyers say details in the PNC deal will be filed within 45 days.
JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, TD Bank and others have reached similar agreements. Chase agreed to pay $110 million to settle, according to papers filed in federal court in February (
Plaintiffs accused the banks of processing customers' debit card transactions in a way to wrongfully maximize overdraft fees.
Specifically, the banks processed debit card transactions not in the order in which customers conducted them but instead from the highest-to-lowest transaction balances; the change allegedly caused customers to drain their accounts quickly and maximized the overdraft fees assessed against them.
The lawsuit claims banks improperly processed debit card transactions to maximize the overdraft fees customers paid. The PNC settlement says the Pittsburgh-based bank is not admitting liability.
