April 4 (Reuters) - Bank of America ( BAC ) must face a

lawsuit claiming it reneged on a promise to refund overdraft

fees to customers facing financial hardship because of the

COVID-19 pandemic.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled on

Wednesday that customers plausibly alleged that the bank misled

them on its website and mobile app by continuing to promise

relief from overdraft and insufficient fund fees, after it had

quietly ended its "Client Assistance Program" on Aug. 31, 2020.

The second-largest U.S. bank began the program five months

earlier to address the pandemic's impact on its 66 million

individual and small business customers. Many banks offered

their customers comparable relief.

According to the complaint, Bank of America ( BAC ) misled customers

into believing it was better to incur $35 overdraft fees than

borrow from family members or obtain loans, because the fees

would be refunded under the program.

Rogers, based in Oakland, California, concluded that the

plaintiffs "sufficiently pleaded that defendant advertised a

program when none existed."

She also called it "plausibly deceptive" for Bank of America ( BAC )

not to formally disclose it had ended the program, even as it

promised to offer refunds on a "case-by-case" basis.

In seeking a dismissal, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based

bank said reasonable customers would not have viewed a formal

announcement as material, and that it never promised refunds for

months or years as pandemic conditions eased.

Bank of America ( BAC ) declined on Thursday to comment on the

decision. Lawyers for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond

to requests for comment.

In January, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

proposed curbing overdraft fees at large banks, reducing the

typical $35 fee to as little as $3 and potentially saving

consumers $3.5 billion a year.

The Bank of America ( BAC ) case had been led by California truck

driver Anthony Ramirez, California manufacturing worker Mynor

Aldana and New Jersey retired widow Janet Hobson.

Each said the bank refused to refund hundreds of dollars of

overdraft and insufficient funds fees imposed in 2020, 2021 or

2022.

The case is Ramirez et al v. Bank of America NA, U.S.

District Court, Northern District of California, No. 22-00859.