WASHINGTON— A federal judge in Washington has moved Bank of America and the FDIC closer to wrapping up their long-running fight over underpaid deposit insurance assessments, ruling the bank must pay interest on the roughly $540 million it owes using one formula for the period before judgment and a different federal rate after judgment, Law360 reported.
The latest order narrows, but does not fully end, a dispute over how interest should be calculated on top of the principal amount the bank was ordered to pay last year.
The fight stems from U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan’s April 2025 ruling that Bank of America had to pay about $540.3 million to the FDIC after the agency accused the bank of underpaying deposit insurance assessments tied to a 2011 post-crisis reporting rule. In that decision, the court said the payment covered underpaid assessments from the second quarter of 2013 through the end of 2014, plus interest, while also finding that earlier claims were time-barred. The FDIC had originally sued in 2017 and at one point sought $1.12 billion.
According to Law360, the new order says prejudgment interest should be based on a government-set rate, while post-judgment interest should be calculated using the standard federal rate, giving both sides part of what they wanted in the fight over the proper formulas. Bloomberg Law reported last summer that the FDIC had already collected more than $657 million from Bank of America, but the two sides were still battling over how much additional interest was owed.
While the latest ruling appears to bring more clarity to the payment formula, it also shows how even after a headline judgment is entered, the true cost of a regulatory fight may still hinge on how courts apply interest before and after the gavel falls.