04.18.12

Durbin Applauds TD Bank's and Eastman Credit Union's Decision to Adopt Fee Disclosure Form

Banks Choose to Clearly Disclose Account Fees to Their Customers

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) sent a letter to the CEOs of TD Bank and Eastman Credit Union applauding their decision to voluntarily adopt a disclosure form designed to make checking account terms and fees transparent and easy for consumers to understand, as he has been urging.  A copy of that letter is attached.

 

“TD Bank’s and Eastman Credit Union’s decision to voluntarily adopt a simple and clear fee disclosure form will help their customers and shows that transparency and fairness are a good business plan,” Durbin said. “Giving consumers clear, upfront and accurate information about the fees that they will be charged will allow consumers to make sound financial decisions. As we’ve seen over the last few months, consumers are demanding they be treated fairly and I’m glad TD Bank and Eastman Credit Union are listening. It’s time for banks and credit unions across the country to join the growing number of financial institutions who’ve decided to put their customers first.”

 

The decision by TD Bank and Eastman Credit Union to adopt the disclosure form comes two months after the University of Illinois Employees Credit Union and  Inland Bank – a community bank in the Chicagoland area – announced that they would adopt a similar fee disclosure form for checking accounts. Last year, Chase, the nation’s largest bank, announced they too would adopt a similar form.

 

Last November, Senator Durbin called on the nation’s financial institutions to voluntarily simplify checking account fee disclosures by adopting the Pew form. Durbin has also asked the Illinois banking and credit union communities to voluntarily adopt the fee disclosure form.

 

TD Bank one of the nation’s largest banks. Eastman Credit Union has over 130,000 members and is based in Tennessee.

 

TD Bank and Eastman Credit Union will be adopting a disclosure form based on The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Safe Checking in the Electronic Age Project. A copy of Pew’s model form is attached.  It outlines all the basic checking account terms and conditions – including ATM fees, interest rates, overdraft penalties, and account closing fees -- in a concise, easy-to-read, one-page format.  Currently, the median length of checking account disclosures is 111 pages, according to a Pew study of the nation's 10 largest banks.

 

The Pew disclosure form has also been voluntarily adopted by Pentagon Federal Credit Union and the North Carolina State Employees’ Credit Union.