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the market widely believes that the federal reserve will cut interest rates soon, and the era of high interest rates in the united states will soon end. many bank and brokerage clients have recently suddenly realized that they have been taken advantage of by american banks and have begun to "settle accounts" and sue banks for obtaining high returns through deposits in customer cash settlement accounts during the high interest rate era, but still only providing customers with low interest returns. the u.s. securities and exchange commission (sec) has also intervened, and some banks have had to raise the interest rates of related accounts.

raymond james (rjf) and jpmorgan chase (jpm) have been hit with lawsuits in recent days by customers who say they were defrauded of interest on idle cash, the latest in several such lawsuits against banks and brokerages that have also been sued, including wells fargo (wfc), morgan stanley (ms), ubs (ubs), ameriprise (amp) and lpl financial (lpla).

the core dispute of these lawsuits is that these institutions use idle funds in customers' cash settlement accounts to obtain high returns, but the interest rate level provided by cash settlement accounts remains at the level of the low-interest rate era.

in this round of the fed's interest rate hike cycle, the federal benchmark interest rate has risen to a 23-year high of 5.25% to 5.5%, but many banks and securities firms have never followed suit to raise the interest rate level of cash settlement accounts. robert finkel, a senior partner at wolf popper llp, said: "currently, the federal funds rate is above 5%, and the interest rate of government money market funds is also about 5%. even if idle funds are placed in retirement accounts, the returns can reach billions of dollars. therefore, the interests of cash settlement account customers may be greatly damaged." he is filing a class action lawsuit against morgan stanley on behalf of the relevant account customers.