Margolis v. Sandy Spring Bank

When a bank processes a customer’s ATM and debit-card transactions, it can proceed in at least two different ways. It can process the transactions in chronological order, by which it debits the amount of the first transaction first and the last transaction last. Or it can engage in what is called “batch-processing,” by which it organizes the transactions by dollar amount and then debits the largest transactions first and the smallest transactions last. By engaging in batch-processing and processing the largest transactions first, the bank increases the likelihood of overdrafts — and of…