Reverse Age Discrimination?

Would it be a problem if you have an account that has a lower service fee for those over 55? Or even have an account only for those over 55?

As long as there are no benefits associated with the account that accrue on the lending side, there are no fair deposit laws.

The commentary to 1030.8 further reinforces that this is an acceptable practice.

"Conditions not related to deposit accounts. Institutions may advertise accounts as “free” for consumers meeting conditions not related to deposit accounts, such as the consumer's age. For example, institutions may advertise a NOW account as “free for persons over 65 years old,” even though a maintenance or activity fee is assessed on accounts held by consumers 65 or younger."

Thank you for your responses. What about UDAAP?

UDAAP is a concern if your marketing or employee communication to your customers about the product is unclear or if you advertise benefits that your customers never receive. If you see an uptick in consumers below the age of 55 complaining about the product because from your ad their inferred it was free to them, or they claim staff told them it was free, you have a UDAAP concern. If your customers over 55 wind up paying service fees because you system was not configured correctly to waive fees or staff steered the customers into a higher priced product because they received greater incentives for higher priced products, then you have a UDAAP concern.

The product itself would not lead to a UDAAP citation, but as with any bank product, clearly say what you do and do what you say.

Thank you for your response!