Fifth Third Bancorp Consumer Fraud Lawsuit

Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP, along with Werman Salas P.C., filed a class action complaint against the diversified financial services company Fifth Third Bancorp and Fifth Third Bank, National Association (collectively, “Fifth Third”), for unlawful practices that brought harm to its consumers. The lawsuit seeks to recover damages under the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act (“ICFA”), the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”), and other state law claims. All persons in the United States for whom Fifth Third or a Fifth Third employee opened a financial account or product in the person's name without that person's lawfully obtained authorization may be eligible to join this lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges the violations stemmed from Fifth Third's aggressive “cross-selling” strategy used to increase the number of products and services provided to existing customers. Managers and their subordinate employees were rewarded for meeting ambitious sales goals and penalized in performance ratings for missing them. As a result, Fifth Third's employees allegedly opened accounts in consumers' names, transferred funds to new unauthorized accounts, issued credit cards, enrolled consumers in online banking, and opened lines of credit, all without consumers' knowledge or consent, causing unauthorized fees and, because Fifth Third accessed credit reports without consent to open these accounts, damage to consumer credit scores.

You can also view the filed complaint here.