Banks and credit unions continue to charge abusive overdraftfees, especially on debit card transactions, according to a newreport from the Center for Responsible Lending.

The majority of the $16.7 billion in fees charged in 2011 weretriggered by manipulative banking practices, the reportalleged.

“High Cost Overdraft Practices,” the name of the CRL's report,noted that many lenders ignored previous efforts by regulators tocurb excessive charges.

In 2010, the FDIC advised the institutions it supervises thatmore than six overdraft charges a year is excessive. Yet CRL'sreport finds that two-thirds of all debit card penalty fees comefrom account holders charged more than six fees annually.

The CRL report also showed the continued use of “reordering,” aprocess in which many financial institutions make the largestwithdrawals count first rather than posting them lowest-to-highestor in the order actually received. Banks and credit unionsoften reorder withdrawals to trigger overdraft fees that otherwisewould not have occurred.

On the whole, debit card transactions trigger the most expensivefees, with a median charge of $35 for a $20 overdraft. Debit cardpurchases and ATM transactions account for at least 35% of alloverdraft fees. Research indicated that people of color, seniors,young adults and military families have been hit hardest byoverdraft fees, the CRL report said.

The CRL – a subsidiary of the 50,000-member, $580 millionSelf-Help Credit Union in Durham, N.C. – also recently took onpayday lenders.

In testimony before a Senate Special Committee on Aging in July,Rebecca Bornè, CRL's senior policy counsel, told legislators thatseniors are an especially attractive and vulnerable target fordeceptive lending practices due to the fact that they almost always haveregular Social Security income and often are faced with growingmedical and living expenses.

Bornè added that the CRL's research found that payday lenderstake an average of 33% of a borrower's next Social Security checkto repay a loan.