Shapiro Haber & Urmy Announces a $10 Million Settlement of a Class Action it Filed Against Zions Bancorporation and Four of its Subsidiaries

Shapiro Haber & Urmy announces a $10 Million settlement of a class action it filed against Zions Bancorporation and four of its wholly owned subsidiaries: Zions First National Bank, Amegy Bank National Association, National Bank of Arizona and Vectra Bank Colorado, N. A. The suit alleges that between 2005 and 2011, rather than debiting credit card charges made by their customers in the order in which those charges were made, the four subsidiary banks rearranged the chronological order of debit card charges made by their customers so that the highest charges were subtracted from the available funds in the customers’ accounts first, before deducting the smaller charges, and that the banks also manipulated the posting of deposits to those accounts, all for the purpose of creating overdrafts in the accounts that would not have occurred if the transactions had been debited or credited in the order in which they were made. The suit alleged that these practices allowed the banks to charge overdraft fees against their customers’ accounts that would not have been due if the transactions had been recorded and charged chronologically.

On October 15, 2013 the Court granted preliminary approval of the settlement. A fairness hearing to consider final approval of the settlement has been scheduled for February 14, 2014.