02:50 PM EST, 01/14/2025 (MT Newswires) -- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday sued Capital One Financial ( COF ) and its banking unit Capital One NA for allegedly freezing interest rate increases for one of its savings account programs.

The financial services provider's 360 Savings account promised to deliver the "highest" interest rates, according to a statement. However, the CFPB claimed that Capital One lowered and then froze the rate at a low level of 0.3% from late 2019 to mid-2024 even as rates rose nationwide.

In early 2022, it introduced a 360 Performance Savings program that the CFPB said paid out "substantially more" in interest, with the rate reaching 4.35% in January 2024.

By not specifically notifying 360 Savings account holders about the new product, it worked to "keep them in the dark" by replacing references to the program on its website with the essentially identical 360 Performance Savings account, according to the CFPB. This cost millions of consumers more than $2 billion in lost interest payments, the CFPB said.

"Banks should not be baiting people with promises they can't live up to," CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in the statement.

Shares of Capital One were up 2.5% in afternoon trade. The bank did not respond to a request for comment from MT Newswires.

The regulator is seeking redress for the impacted consumers through civil money penalties.

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