Bank of America Lawsuit 2025: FDIC Judgment and Settlements

Bank of America has been on the receiving end of several major lawsuits and settlements in 2025 and 2026, including a $540 million federal judgment owed to the FDIC, a $72.5 million settlement with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, a $2.25 million consumer class action over ATM fees, and a new case accusing the bank of double-charging credit card customers. The bank also won an appellate ruling on how it calculates variable-rate interest, and a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau lawsuit over Zelle fraud was dropped.

The $540 Million FDIC Judgment

The largest dollar figure attached to Bank of America in this stretch comes from an eight-year fight with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. On March 31, 2025, U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan of the District of Columbia ordered the bank to pay $540.3 million, resolving a case the FDIC filed in 2017.¹

The FDIC alleged that from the second quarter of 2013 through the end of 2014, Bank of America underpaid its quarterly deposit insurance assessments by misreporting how it measured counterparty credit risk. A 2011 FDIC rule required large banks to report counterparty exposures at the consolidated-entity level. According to the agency, Bank of America reported them individually instead, which lowered the bank’s concentration score and its insurance bill. The FDIC originally sought $1.12 billion, but Judge AliKhan found that claims covering periods before the second quarter of 2013 were barred by the statute of limitations.²

Judge AliKhan rejected the bank’s argument that the 2011 rule was ambiguous, writing that “the law is not on [Bank of America’s] side” and that the bank “should have been able to identify with ascertainable certainty the standards it was expected to apply.” She found no intent to evade, noting that Bank of America had repeatedly disclosed its reporting method to the FDIC.¹ The bank said it had already reserved for the judgment and did not commit publicly to an appeal.³ By mid-2025, Bank of America had paid more than $657 million to the FDIC, covering the $540 million assessment plus roughly $110 million in prejudgment interest, with the two sides still disputing what additional interest was owed.⁴

The $72.5 Million Epstein Survivors Settlement

In October 2025, a plaintiff using the pseudonym “Jane Doe” filed a class action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York alleging that Bank of America knowingly benefited from Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking. The complaint claimed the bank ignored suspicious financial activity, prioritized fees from Epstein-related accounts, and obstructed enforcement of the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act.⁵

On March 27, 2026, the parties announced a $72.5 million settlement. The class covers all women who were sexually abused or trafficked by Epstein, or by anyone connected to him, between June 30, 2008, and July 6, 2019. Plaintiffs’ attorneys estimated that 60 to 75 victims would submit claims and indicated they may seek up to 30 percent of the fund, roughly $21.8 million, in legal fees.⁶⁷

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff granted preliminary approval on April 2, 2026, and scheduled a final approval hearing for August 27, 2026.⁶ Bank of America denied facilitating any trafficking but said the resolution “allows us to put this matter behind us and provides further closure for the plaintiffs.”⁸

ATM Balance-Inquiry Fee Class Action

Bank of America customers who used 7-Eleven ATMs may be entitled to a payout from a $2.25 million settlement in Schertzer, et al. v. Bank of America, N.A., et al. (Case No. 3:19-cv-00264-DMS-MSB), pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. The plaintiffs alleged Bank of America breached its customer contracts by charging two out-of-network balance-inquiry fees for a single request at FCTI-owned ATMs inside 7-Eleven stores.⁹

The bank agreed to settle without admitting wrongdoing. Eligible class members are U.S. customers with Bank of America checking accounts who were charged more than one out-of-network balance-inquiry fee during a single ATM visit at a 7-Eleven FCTI-owned machine between May 1, 2018, and November 16, 2021. Anyone who already received a payout from the 2024 settlement in Weiss v. FCTI is excluded.¹⁰

Current Bank of America account holders who qualify do not need to file anything; payouts will be made automatically. Former account holders must submit a claim through oonfeesettlement.com, administered by Kroll Settlement Administration. The claims deadline is June 29, 2026, and a final approval hearing is scheduled for August 21, 2026.¹⁰⁹

Credit Card Double-Billing Class Action

A newer case is still in its opening stages. On November 11, 2025, plaintiff Nicholas Sdoucos filed a class action in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (Case No. 1:25-cv-13845), alleging that Bank of America’s automatic payment system fails to adjust scheduled monthly credit card payments when a cardholder pays the statement balance early. The result, according to the complaint, is a second withdrawal of the same amount.¹¹

The complaint accuses the bank of violating the North Carolina Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the North Carolina Debt Collection Act. It seeks to represent Bank of America credit cardholders who enrolled in automatic payments online, chose the “statement balance” option, made a mid-cycle payment, and were charged the full balance again. The plaintiff alleges that a bank representative attributed the problem to “new software which was not recognizing manual payments.” No motion to dismiss or class certification ruling has been entered.¹¹

Ninth Circuit Sides With the Bank on Variable-Rate Cards

Not every case went against Bank of America. In Milliken v. Bank of America, N.A. (No. 24-4498), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit unanimously affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit challenging how the bank calculates interest on variable-rate credit cards. Judge Daniel A. Bress wrote the December 29, 2025 opinion, joined by Judges Morgan B. Christen and Lawrence VanDyke.¹²

Plaintiff Austin Milliken argued that the bank violated the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act (CARD Act) by applying rate increases, driven by Federal Reserve hikes to the U.S. Prime Rate, to balances incurred before those increases took effect. The Prime Rate climbed from 3.25 percent to 8.25 percent between March 2022 and July 2023.¹³ The Ninth Circuit held that because the bank’s formula adds a fixed margin to a publicly available index it does not control, it falls within the CARD Act’s exception for variable-rate increases. The court also found that applying a month-end rate change to the entire billing cycle is permissible, since the statute does not dictate when index-based changes must take effect.¹²

CFPB Actions and the Dropped Zelle Case

Bank of America’s recent history with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau includes both closed matters and one dismissed lawsuit. In July 2023, the CFPB ordered the bank to refund about $80.4 million to customers who were charged repeat non-sufficient fund fees. Between September 2018 and February 2022, Bank of America had charged $35 fees on transactions already assessed a fee when previously returned unpaid. The CFPB called the practice an unfair act in violation of the Consumer Financial Protection Act and imposed a $60 million civil penalty; the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency added a separate $60 million fine.¹⁴

A November 2023 consent order over the bank’s failure to collect required demographic data on mortgage applicants under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act carried a $12 million civil penalty. The CFPB terminated that order early, on June 4, 2025, after finding the bank had fulfilled its obligations.¹⁵

In December 2024, the CFPB sued Bank of America along with JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Early Warning Services, alleging the banks had “allowed fraud to fester” on the Zelle payment network, costing consumers more than $870 million since Zelle’s 2017 launch.¹⁶ The agency voluntarily dismissed that lawsuit with prejudice on March 4, 2025, meaning it cannot bring the same claims again.¹⁷

On August 13, 2025, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a state lawsuit against Early Warning Services, which operates Zelle, alleging the platform was designed without basic safety features and caused more than $1 billion in consumer losses between 2017 and 2023. Bank of America is one of the banks that owns Early Warning Services, but the New York complaint names only EWS itself, not the individual banks.¹⁸

Data Breaches Traced to Outside Vendors

Bank of America has disclosed multiple data breaches in recent years, all traced to failures at outside service providers rather than the bank’s own systems. The most widely reported incident involved Infosys McCamish Systems, a financial software company that services deferred compensation plans for the bank. The ransomware group LockBit attacked Infosys McCamish on November 3, 2023, and encrypted portions of its systems. Infosys McCamish notified Bank of America on November 24, 2023, and the bank informed 57,028 affected customers in February 2024. Compromised data included names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and account information. Bank of America offered affected customers two years of identity theft protection.¹⁹

In January 2025, the bank disclosed a separate breach involving an unnamed third-party provider whose systems had been accessed without authorization around October 1, 2024. That incident compromised mortgage-related information for at least 414 customers, including names, addresses, passport numbers, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, and loan numbers. No lawsuit tied to the January 2025 disclosure has been publicly filed.²⁰

1
Banking Dive. Bank of America Ordered To Pay FDIC $540M in Risk Lawsuit
2
ABA Banking Journal. Bank of America To Pay FDIC $540M for Allegedly Underpaid Premiums
3
GV Wire. Judge Orders Bank of America To Pay $540 Million in FDIC Lawsuit
4
Bloomberg Law. BofA, FDIC Still Fighting Over Interest on $540 Million Judgment
5
CNBC. Jeffrey Epstein Bank of America Lawsuit Settle
6
Reuters. Bank of America’s $72.5 Million Settlement With Epstein Accusers Wins Preliminary Approval
7
The Daily Record. Bank of America Settlement Epstein Accusers Lawsuit
8
The New York Times. Bank of America Epstein Victims Settlement
9
ClassAction.org. Schertzer et al. v. Bank of America Settlement Notice
10
USA Today. Bank of America Class Action Settlement ATM Fees
11
ClassAction.org. Class Action Lawsuit Claims Bank of America Fails To Update Card Payments, Double-Charges Cardholders
12
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Milliken v. Bank of America, N.A., No. 24-4498
13
ABA Banking Journal. Ninth Circuit Upholds BofA’s Variable Credit Card Interest Formula Under the CARD Act
14
CFPB. Bank of America, N.A. — Fees
15
Banking Dive. CFPB Terminates BofA Consent Order Early
16
CNBC. CFPB Drops JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo Lawsuit
17
CFPB. CFPB Sues JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo for Allowing Fraud To Fester on Zelle
18
New York Attorney General. Attorney General James Sues Company Behind Zelle for Enabling Widespread Fraud
19
American Banker. Data Breach Affects 57,000 Bank of America Accounts
20
Yahoo Finance. Bank of America Alerts Customers to Data Breach