[JURIST] JPMorgan Chase [corporate website; JURIST news archive] on Tuesday agreed to a $100 million settlement in a case alleging that the company increased monthly minimum payments for credit card holders from 2 percent to 5 percent in 2008 and 2009 to profit from higher fees. The settlement, which was filed [Huffington Post report] with the US District Court for the Northern District of California [official website] in San Francisco on Monday, has to be approved by a judge. Cardholders filed the claim against the bank three years ago arguing that the bank made additional profit based on those who could not meet the higher payments while the bank alleged that the fees were reasonable. A judge is expected to review the settlement in August.

JPMorgan Chase has faced numerous lawsuits related to its business practices. In early June the US District Court for the Southern District of New York [official website] granted [JURIST report] the bank permission to pay $44.6 million in order to resolve allegations of fraudulent bidding practices for state and local government investment securities at taxpayers’ expense. The settlement followed JPMorgan’s agreement last July to pay a total of $228 million to federal and state authorities. It agreed [JURIST report] to pay $51.2 million to the affected municipalities, and its affiliates agreed to pay $177 million to settle parallel charges from other federal and state authorities including 25 states’ attorneys general, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Internal Revenue Service, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve Board [official websites]. A month earlier JPMorgan reached [JURIST report] a $153.6 million settlement for fraud charges brought by the SEC for misleading investors during the housing crises. In May the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida [official website] approved [JURIST report] a settlement agreement between JPMorgan and more than one million litigants nationwide who sued over excessive overdraft fees. JPMorgan agreed to pay $110 million to customers in settlement to resolve the litigation.