A US federal judge has said he is likely to approve a $2.5m settlement of a court case against First Liberty Bank.
First Liberty, owned by Community Bank NA since 2001, has offered nearly 50,000 customers $2.5m between them after they challenged the bank’s debit card charges. They claimed the bank manipulated the order of debit card charges to increase chances customers would unwittingly overdraw their accounts.
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Jonathan Fellows, representing the regional bank in court, said it had made a "strategic decision" to settle rather than fight an expensive legal battle.
Both Fellows and Jeffrey Ostrow, representing some of the complainants, urged Judge Robert Mariani to approve the deal.
The $2.5m will go towards lawyers fees and partially refunding the 49,000 customers who have challenged overdraft fees received between 20 July, 2006, and 15 Aug, 2010.
Mariani said he would have to review the case before making a final decision on the settlement.
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