Fifth Third Must Face Revived ‘Early Access’ Loan Suit

A federal appeals court revived a class action lawsuit alleging that Fifth Third Bank lured consumers into using a cash advance loan product by advertising far lower annual percentage rates than consumers actually paid.

Fifth Third gave different definitions of APR in the fine print of its “Early Advance” loan products that gave the impression that consumers were paying 120 percent interest rates when in actuality the annual interest rates could be as high as 3650 percent, a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit determined May 28.

The panel noted that the maximum ...