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Capital One Kept $2B In Savings Account Interest From Banking Customers, Cfpb Suit Says

The federal government is suing Captial One, accusing the banking giant of deceiving consumers and withholding more than $2 billion in interest payments on savings accounts.

A sign for Capital One Bank in Queens, NY.

A sign for Capital One Bank in Queens, NY.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons - Tdorante10

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed a lawsuit against Capital One and its parent company, the agency said in a news release on Tuesday, Jan. 14.

The CFPB accused Capital One of marketing its "360 Savings" accounts as offering some of the nation's highest interest rates but froze those rates while competitors' rates climbed. Simultaneously, the bank introduced a nearly identical product, "360 Performance Savings," offering significantly higher rates—at times more than 14 times the 360 Savings rate.

According to the CFPB, Capital One deliberately kept existing 360 Savings customers unaware of the new, higher-yielding account to maintain a “two-tier” system, leaving millions of account holders with reduced returns while new customers benefited from the higher rates.

"The CFPB is suing Capital One for cheating families out of billions of dollars on their savings accounts," said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. "Banks should not be baiting people with promises they can't live up to."

In a statement to Daily Voice, a spokesperson said Capital One was "deeply disappointed to see the CFPB continue its recent pattern of filing eleventh hour lawsuits ahead of a change in administration."

"We strongly disagree with their claims and will vigorously defend ourselves in court," the spokesperson said. "Capital One is proud of its unique and industry leading 360 suite of banking products, all of which offer great rates, carry no fees and no minimums, and have always been available in just minutes to all new and existing customers without any of the usual industry restrictions. Our flagship 360 Performance Savings product was marketed widely, including on national television, with the simplest and most transparent terms in the industry."

The suit also claims Capital One misled customers by claiming the 360 Savings account provided a "high interest" rate that was "one of the nation's best." From late 2019 to mid-2024, the 360 Savings rate was locked at 0.30 percent, while the 360 Performance Savings rate increased steadily, reaching 4.35 percent by January 2024.

Capital One was also accused of not notifying 360 Savings accountholders about the new product and excluded them from marketing campaigns promoting the 360 Performance Savings account. The bank even prohibited employees from informing customers about the higher-yielding option, according to the CFPB complaint.

Capital One, headquartered in McLean, Virginia, operates as a national bank with assets exceeding $480 billion. Its legal troubles stem from its acquisition of online bank ING Direct USA in 2012. 

After rebranding the "ING Direct" accounts as "360 Savings" in 2013, the bank began marketing them as high-interest savings products.

The CFPB said it was seeking to stop Capital One's "unlawful conduct," compensate affected customers, and issue fines, which would go to the CFPB's victims relief fund.

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