SALT LAKE CITY Zions National Bank and three other banks have agreed to pay a total of $10 million to customers who say they fraudulently processed transactions using a “high-to-low” scheme that caused them to accumulate multiple overdrafts.
Zions has agreed to pay $5.5 million to members of the class, with the three other banks, Amegy Bank, National Bank of Arizona and Vectra Bank Colorado, paying the balance, according to court records. The suit is called Melinda Barlow v. Zions Bancorporation and was brought in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah.
The latest bank overdraft settlement comes as eight similar suits brought against credit unions last year were dismissed. One of those suits, naming Alabama Telco CU as defendant, still is pending.
In July Congress introduced a bill that would bar credit unions and banks from reordering customer/member payments so as to create the most overdrafts, a practice known as batching.
