Last week, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the banks over the fairness of unauthorised overdraft charges.
The legal battle, which has been ongoing since July 2007, came as a devastating blow to consumer groups who have been campaigning for many years about the charges, which they deem to be unfair.
Since the ruling, banking giant Lloyds said it is seeking to throw out the thousands of claims lodged against it for the return of overdraft fees.
Lloyds Banking Group, which is currently 43% owned by the taxpayer, includes both Lloyds TSB and HBOS banks.
In a statement, the megabank said: “As the judgement concludes the test case, the FSA has agreed that these complaints should no longer remain on hold.”
“This means that for those customers who currently have an outstanding complaint about unarranged overdrafts, we’ll be writing to them shortly to let them know what today’s judgment means for them.
“We be asking the County and Sheriff Courts to apply the Supreme Court judgement to dismiss any claims they currently have on hold,” added the statement.
Consumer watchdog, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), which brought the case against the banks, is still considering whether to use other methods to attack overdraft fees - perhaps by instigating a full competition commission enquiry.
Banks and building societies were charging over £35 for a bounced cheque, standing order or direct debit but campaigners claimed the actual cost incurred by the financial institutions could be as low as £2.
Print this Story
