While acknowledging that governments have “sought to protect desperately poor people from the consequences of their own desperation” by prohibiting usurious loans, a federal judge dismissed the claims of a class of “payday loan” borrowers—who were charged interest as high as 1,200 percent—against a bank that processed the transactions.
Eastern District Judge Arthur Spatt (See Profile) ruled in Costoso v. Bank of America, 14-cv-4100, that Jeanette Costoso was bound by her account agreement with Bank of America, which “expressly insulates the defendant from liability for permitting withdrawals from the plaintiff’s account.”
