The overdraft fee class action charged Bank of America with manipulating the way it processed debit card transactions in order to maximize overdraft fees.  For example, the bank would process the highest dollar amount transaction first, even though it may have been the last transaction to have taken place.  That way, the overdraft fees would be triggered faster and the customer would rack up more charges, making the bank more money.

Bank of America settled the overdraft fee class action this week to the tune of $410 million.  Attorneys say the bank actually made $4.5 billion in overdraft fees, so it didn’t seem like a huge win for the plaintiffs.

Part of the issue in the Bank of America class action lies in whether plaintiffs can force Countrywide to buy back these bad investments.  The securities are backed by deficient mortgages.  Plaintiffs say the bank and Countrywide misrepresented the securities by downplaying the severity of the bad mortgages.

Institutional investors in the mortgage-backed securities have filed their own separate Bank of America class action, which is a securities suit in a separate issue.

The Countrywide mortgage-backed securities portion of the lawsuit is in the settlement phase, but has encountered many obstacles so far.  All indicators are saying the Bank of America class action is going to be around for a while.