The CFPB is conducting supervisory research to collect five metrics from more than 20 institutions about the consumer impact of their overdraft and non-sufficient fund (NSF) practices. These consumer-impact metrics are:
- Total annual dollar amount consumers receive in overdraft coverage compared to the amount of fees charged.
- Annual dollar amount of overdraft fees charged per active checking account.
- Annual dollar amount of NSF fees charged per active checking account.
- Prevalence of frequent overdrafters: the share of active checking accounts with more than 6 and more than 12 overdraft and/or NSF fees per year.
- Share of active checking accounts that are opted into overdraft programs for ATM and one-time debit transactions
Additionally, the CFPB is seeking detailed information about overdraft practices, including how institutions assess their fees, their grace periods, the dollar thresholds above which fees are assessed, and caps on the number of fees charged per day, or per statement period.
The CFPB intends to use the information collected from these institutions to identify those that require further examination and review. They also plan to provide feedback to each institution and share this information with other regulators. The CFPB hopes these metrics will shed light on how institutions’ overdraft practices directly impact their consumers relative to other institutions and that this knowledge encourages institutions to compete for consumers’ business by changing their overdraft and NSF programs.