BANKING & FINANCE - July 23, 1993

First Interstate Ordered to Pay Damages: First Interstate Bank of California has been ordered to pay more than $13.9 million in damages for overcharging credit card customers who paid late or exceeded their credit limits. Superior Court Judge Daniel M. Hanlon issued a judgment in San Francisco in the class-action suit. The court found that the bank had unlawfully overcharged its customers more than $13.9 million in late and over-limit fees from 1983 through 1991, said attorney James C. Sturdevant, who filed the suit on behalf of First Interstate credit card customers. The bank was ordered to identify all clients who were overcharged and return the $13.9 million to them in the form of refunds.