BB&T Must Litigate Claims Over 6.5% Annual Interest Guarantee

BB&T Corp. must litigate a proposed class action over a predecessor’s guarantee of no less than a 6.5% annual interest rate for certain money market investment accounts, after an appeals court reversed on Friday a lower court’s order compelling the plaintiffs to arbitrate their claims.

There wasn’t mutual assent to arbitrate, Judge Ronald L. Gilman wrote for a majority of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

The high-interest money market investment accounts were originally opened with First National Bank of Gatlinburg by plaintiffs in 1989. First National was, following a series of mergers, eventually absorbed into BB&T, ...