CUNA President/CEO Jim Nussle issued a statement in response to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) special edition supervisory highlights report on junk fees, which included certain overdraft protections.  

“The CFPB’s continued use of the term ‘junk fee’ is disingenuous. The bureau has repeatedly used that ambiguous term to describe heavily regulated, clearly disclosed fees for services that consumers use to resolve short-term financial shortfalls or incur as a result of specific, avoidable behaviors,” Nussle said. “Overdraft protection and other common fees in consumer financial services are not so-called junk fees. Attempting to connect them to truly opaque fees, like ticket or resort fees, is misleading political messaging.

“Credit unions believe in empowering consumers to manage their finances as they see fit and this includes giving them the choice to access a variety of services if they need them.” 

CUNA has stated that the overly broad use of the term “junk fees” will result in less consumer access to credit, and ignores many standard fees that consumers opt into.