Kehoe Law Firm, P.C. is invesigating whether certain executive officers or board members of Comerica Inc. (“Comerica”) (NYSE: CMA) failed to manage Comerica in an acceptable manner, in breach of their fiduciary duties to Comerica, and whether Comerica and its shareholders were harmed as a result.
CURRENT INVESTORS OF COMERICA STOCK ARE ENCOURAGED TO CLICK HERE TO CONTACT KEHOE LAW FIRM, P.C. FOR A FREE EVALUATION OF POTENTIAL LEGAL CLAIMS.
CFPB v. Comerica Bank
On December 6, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) sued Comerica Bank, a subsidiary of publicly traded Comerica Inc., for systematically failing its 3.4 million Direct Express cardholders – primarily unbanked Americans receiving federal benefits.
Comerica Bank, according to the CFPB, deliberately disconnected 24 million customer service calls, impeding cardholders from exercising their rights under the law, charged illegal ATM fees to over 1 million cardholders, and mishandled fraud complaints while providing federal benefits through the Direct Express prepaid debit card program.
Key CFPB Lawsuit Allegations About How Comerica Harmed its Customers:
- Deliberately disconnecting customer service calls: Comerica’s vendors intentionally dropped more than 24 million calls from customers before they could reach a representative. Customers whose calls were not dropped were routinely forced to endure excessively long wait times—often in excess of several hours—to speak with a representative to get help with unauthorized transactions, charge disputes, and lost or stolen cards.
- Charging consumers illegal ATM fees: Over one million Direct Express cardholders were charged ATM fees to access their government benefits in situations where they were legally entitled to free withdrawals.
- Misleading fraud victims: When consumers contacted Comerica alleging they had been fraudulently enrolled into the Direct Express program, the bank’s vendors frequently advised the consumers that “no error occurred” where the bank had determined that there was, in fact, enrollment fraud.
- Imposing illegal terms of service on consumers seeking to stop payments: Comerica led its consumers to agree to waive their consumer protections by requiring cardholders to contact and request merchants to stop pre-authorized payment transfers from their account in situations where the law in fact required the bank to stop the transfers itself.
- Failing to investigate account problems: Under federal law, when a customer notifies a bank about an incorrect or potentially fraudulent charge on their account, the bank must take steps to investigate the error within a specified time period. The CFPB’s investigation found that Comerica failed to meet this requirement more than 20,000 times. And when they did investigate, they frequently provided vague and confusing findings or blew off customers altogether.
- Forcing consumers to close accounts, which often resulted in additional fees: The bank’s vendors required thousands of cardholders to close their accounts to stop a preauthorized payment, resulting in consumers incurring additional fees to expedite receipt of their new debit cards to regain access to their government benefits.
Read the CFPB complaint by clicking CFPB v. Comerica Bank.
COMERICA SHAREHOLDERS ALSO CAN CLICK HERE, EMAIL [email protected], OR CONTACT MICHAEL YARNOFF, ESQ., (215) 792-6676, EXT. 804, [email protected] TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE COMERICA BREACH OF FIDUCIARY DUTIES INVESTIGATION.
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