Vienna Flores Pens Article for the Journal of Consumer & Commercial Law

Vienna Flores has authored an article for the Winter 2017 edition of the Journal of Consumer & Commercial Law.   The article, titled “Overdraft Policies Require More Than Compliance with Regulation E,” examines the CFPB’s regulation of financial institutions’ overdraft fee policies and practices.

“In the past few years, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) has focused on taking action against multiple financial institutions for their overdraft services practices.  These practices are regulated by the Federal Reserve Board’s ‘Regulation E’, as restated by the CFPB in 12 C.F.R § 1005.17.

Regulation E prohibits financial institutions from assessing overdraft fees for paying ATM or one-time debit card transactions pursuant to the institution’s overdraft service, unless the consumer chooses to opt-in or affirmatively consents to those services. In order to promote compliance with this regulation, the Federal Reserve Board provides a model consent form for financial institutions to use to attain consent for these overdraft services. Notably, this rule does not prevent financial institutions from charging overdraft fees without the consumer’s consent for standard overdraft practices, such as the bank authorizing overdrafts for checks or automatic bill payments.” [Read the entire article]