“It is deeply troubling that economical institutions, like our nation’s biggest financial institutions, profited off fees billed to individuals battling the most as the Covid-19 financial disaster still left quite a few people in intense economical distress,” the lawmakers wrote in a Wednesday letter to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.
“We urge you to refund the overdraft expenses JPM billed to people during the Covid-19 pandemic and to alter JPM’s overdraft practices to prevent charging these predatory fees in the potential,” the lawmakers wrote.
JPMorgan: We waived $430 million in overdraft costs
JPMorgan declined to comment directly on the New York Democrats’ letter.
“Our regulators encouraged banks to do factors like waive expenses and delay/defer payments for impacted clients — which is specifically what we did,” a JPMorgan spokesperson said in a assertion.
JPMorgan explained that “with no questions asked,” it waived expenses and delayed payments for about 3 million accounts for clients who explained they have been influenced by Covid-19. Completely, the bank mentioned it waived above $650 million in fees, like $430 million in overdraft charges.
Meanwhile, JPMorgan pointed to a array of advancements it has produced to overdraft policies in new a long time, which include introducing an overdraft-totally free, very low price lender account and exhibiting check transactions as “pending” to give customers a chance to make deposits to prevent overdrawing their accounts.
Nonetheless, overdraft expenses are evidently less than hefty scrutiny suitable now.
Maloney, just one of the New York lawmakers who wrote to Dimon, designs to reintroduce legislation that would crack down on what she views as “predatory” overdraft costs.