Golden votes against resolution to weaken protections against overdraft fees
WASHINGTON — Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02) today voted against a resolution to weaken overdraft fee regulations on large banks and credit unions.
In December 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) finalized a rule that required financial institutions with more than $10 billion to institute greater transparency policies regarding overdraft fees, or to cap such a fee at $5. Today’s resolution sought to repeal the rule.
“There should be rules against lenders who use unreasonable overdraft fees to make money off families,” Golden said. “CFPB was right to crack down on the most predatory practices, and rolling back these changes will only benefit the executives trying to make a bigger profit off working Americans.”
Financial institutions charge customers overdraft fees when there is not enough money in their checking account to cover a transaction. In return for temporarily paying the difference rather than simply declining the charge, the lender charges customers a fee — roughly $35 on average.
These fees stack for each overdrafted charge, which can quickly dwarf the amount of money that an account was actually short. Limited disclosure laws can also leave customers unaware of their lender’s overdraft program until fees have already been charged. Overdraft fees are a significant revenue generator for financial institutions, totaling more than $5.8 billion in 2023 alone.
CFPB’s recent rule requires large financial institutions to follow transparency laws similar to those for credit cards before being allowed to charge current overdraft fee rates. For lenders uninterested in complying, the rule also allows them to simply cap overdraft fees at $5 instead.
The resolution to overturn this rule was submitted under the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to override administrative rulemaking with a majority in both chambers and the president’s signature. Having passed the House and Senate, it now heads to the president’s desk.
Golden also voted against a separate resolution to limit federal oversight of nonbank digital payment systems such as Apple Wallet, Google Pay, PayPal and Venmo.
###