I am a signatory to a letter being sent to the House’s Committee on Financial Services, in opposition to H.J. Res. 59 (Hill), CRA Resolution to Overturn CFPB Rule on Overdraft Lending: Very Large Financial Institutions. The letter states,

The undersigned 278 consumer, civil rights, labor, legal services and community organizations and academics write to urge you to oppose H.J. Res. 59 (Hill) and any other effort to overturn the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s overdraft fee rule, which will reduce most overdraft fees from $35 to $5, stop manipulative practices by big banks, improve transparency, and put $5 billion back into the pockets of everyday people and their families. The public widely views current overdraft fee practices as unfair.

The overdraft fee rule closes a paper-check era loophole that has allowed big banks to trick people into paying excessive overdraft fees and earn billions in profits off of the most vulnerable families. The rule lowers most so-called “courtesy” overdraft fees from $35 to $5, saving households that pay overdraft fees an average of $225 a year. The rule gives big banks a variety of options to cover overdrafts, including safer, more transparent overdraft lines of credit with no price limit and the same disclosure requirements as credit cards. The rule only applies to very large institutions with over $10 billion in assets, many of which have already adopted similar protections. Smaller banks and credit unions are completely exempt.

We urge you to stand with everyday people over big banks. Banks should not profit off the struggles of working families through excessive, back-end overdraft junk fees. Please oppose H.J. Res. 59.