Capital One sued by US watchdog alleging bank cheated customers out of $2 billion

[January 15, 2025]  By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS

NEW YORK (AP) — A U.S. watchdog is suing Capital One for allegedly misleading consumers about its offerings for high-interest savings accounts — and “cheating" customers out of more than $2 billion in lost interest payments as a result.

In a complaint filed Tuesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took aim at Capital One's promises and handling of its “360 Savings” accounts. Despite promoting 360 Savings as an account that provides one of nation's highest interest rates, the CFPB alleges that Capital One froze its rate at a low level for at least several years, even as rates rose nationally.

At the same time, the CFPB adds, the bank created “360 Performance Savings," which saw a much higher rate grow. But the agency says that Capital One did not notify 360 Savings accountholders about this new offering and “instead worked to keep them in the dark" — alleging that the company marketed the products similarly to obscure their distinction and forbade employees "from proactively telling” those with 360 Savings accounts about 360 Performance Savings.

These actions mean Capital One “illegally avoided paying billions in interest to millions of consumers,” the CFPB wrote in its Tuesday complaint. The agency says it’s seeking to impose civil penalties and provide financial relief to those impacted.

“Banks should not be baiting people with promises they can’t live up to," CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a prepared statement.

In response, Capital One said that it strongly disagreed with the CFPB's allegations and plans to “vigorously defend” itself in court. The banking giant added that it was “deeply disappointed to see the CFPB continue its recent pattern of filing eleventh-hour lawsuits ahead of a change in administration.”

A man walks across the street from a Capital One location in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

Capital One also maintained that all of its 360 banking products “offer great rates” — and have “always been available in just minutes to all new and existing customers without any of the usual industry restrictions.”

According to disclosures on the Capital One's website, 360 Savings accounts currently carry an interest rate of just under 0.50%. 360 Performance Savings accounts have an interest rate of about 3.74%.

That means the rate for 360 Performance Savings is nearly 7.5 times higher than that of 360 Savings today. But the CFPB says they've been farther apart in the past. In July 2024, the agency notes in Tuesday's complaint, the 360 Performance Savings rate was more than 14 times that of 360 Savings.

The CFPB alleges that Capital One kept the rate for its 360 Savings accounts at 0.30% between December 2020 through at least August 2024. The rate for 360 Performance Savings, by contrast, climbed from 0.40% in April 2022 to as high as 4.35% at the start of 2024 — falling slightly to 4.25% by August, the agency noted Tuesday.

The CFPB's complaint against Capital One comes less than one week before the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. Despite the change in administration, some say this litigation could still survive. Analyst commentary from TD Cowen on Tuesday noted that the CFPB still brought enforcement actions under Trump's first term, for example, although such litigation may also be easier to settle under the incoming administration.

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