CFPB stepping up review of overdraft, NSF practices

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to step up its examination of certain financial institutions’ overdraft policies. 

The bureau said in a blog Friday that it has been piloting a supervision effort to collect key metrics from 20 institutions regarding the consumer impact of their overdraft and nonsufficient fund (NSF) practices. It did not name the institutions.

The information includes the total annual dollar amount consumers receive in overdraft coverage compared to the amount of fees charged and the annual dollar amount of overdraft fees charged per active checking account. 

The CFPB has also collected data on the annual dollar amount of NSF fees charged per active checking account, along with the share of active checking accounts with more than six and more than 12 overdraft and/or NSF fees per year. 

Finally, the supervision effort sought information on the share of active checking accounts that are opted into overdraft programs for ATM and one-time debit transactions. 

The CFPB said it plans to use the data to “identify institutions for further examination and review.” It also intends to provide feedback to each institution and share the data with other regulators. The information will not be made public.

Several banks have been curbing or eliminating their fees in recent months.

The CFPB said it was “encouraged” by those efforts, adding that it will evaluate how the changes are implemented.