Warren calls on big banks to follow Capital One in ditching overdraft fees

Following Capital One’s announcement that it would be dropping overdraft fees, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Wednesday pressed other big banks to follow suit and end the “abusive practice.”

Capital One announced on Wednesday that it would be “completely” getting rid of overdraft fees for its customers by offering free overdraft protection. The company boasted it was the only bank among the top ten in the U.S. to make the move for its customers.

Warren took to Twitter to praise Capital One’s decision and urge its competitors to do the same.

“Bank overdraft fees snatch billions from struggling families & even during this pandemic, big banks raked in billions from this abusive practice. This is a good move by @CapitalOne . Big banks like @JPMorgan should do the same,” Warren, who sits on the Senate Committee on Banking, tweeted.

Bank overdraft fees snatch billions from struggling families & even during this pandemic, big banks raked in billions from this abusive practice. This is a good move by @CapitalOne. Big banks like @JPMorgan should do the same.https://t.co/gOTyR02EkN

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) December 1, 2021

Warren’s singling out of JPMorgan Chase is particularly pointed given that the Massachusetts senator engaged in a heated exchange with the company’s CEO Jamie Dimon earlier this year.

During a Senate Banking Committee hearing in May, Warren pressed Dimon, along with the CEOs of other major banks, on whether or not they waived overdraft fees after banking regulators recommended it at the start of the pandemic. When asked by Warren to raise their hands if they waived the fees, none of the CEOs appeared to do so.

Warren accused Dimon of being the “star of the overdraft show,” claiming that his company alone made “more than seven times as much money overdraft fees per account than your competitors,” which Dimon denied. He stated that his company waived overdraft fees upon request from customers who were under financial stress due to the pandemic.

JPMorgan reportedly collected nearly $1.5 billion in overdraft fees during the pandemic, while the four major Wall Street banks combined collected about $4 billion.

The big bank CEOs came to the Senate today to talk about how they stepped up and took care of customers during the pandemic – and I told them that’s a bunch of baloney. They nickel and dimed their struggling customers with overdraft fees to line their own pockets. pic.twitter.com/yKYwScMUs9

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) May 26, 2021

The Hill has reached out to JPMorgan Chase for comment.