Cases & Investigations
Axos Bank d/b/a UFB Direct Consumer Litigation

Wolf Popper LLP has filed a class action complaint against Axos Bank d/b/a UFB Direct in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. The complaint alleges that UFB, the online division of San Diego-based Axos Bank, has misled and defrauded consumers nationwide who were duped into opening money market accounts with the bank before it covertly capped the annual percentage yield (“APY”) associated with their accounts, converted them into so-called “legacy” accounts, and began offering higher rates to new customers in similar-sounding accounts. The suit alleges that UFB engaged in this misconduct while misleading customers into thinking that they were receiving its highest APY.
 
UFB implemented the alleged scheme in early 2022, when it began substituting its highest yielding money market account with a similarly named account that provided a higher interest rate exclusively to new customers, leaving its newly designated “legacy” account holders without the promised benefits. In addition, UFB would modify its account agreement to redefine the previous money market account as a “legacy account.”
 
The complaint alleges that UFB failed to provide any notice to its current money market account holders regarding the impending designation of their accounts as “legacy” accounts. Additionally, UFB failed to communicate to these designated “legacy” account holders that, following the replacement of their accounts, they would no longer enjoy the previously granted highest available interest rates promised by the bank.
 
Per the complaint, a reasonable consumer perusing UFB’s website would not discern a distinction between the bank’s current highest-yielding money market account program and the “legacy accounts,” as UFB deliberately selected ordinary, nondescriptive adjectives for each account rebrand, aiming to minimize the likelihood of detection by even the most vigilant account holders. UFB also failed to disclose the existence of the “legacy” accounts, or their lower interest rates, on its website.
 
The case is Pliszka v. Axos Bank, case number 3:24-cv-00445, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.”
 

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