The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and mobile banking app Beam Financial are close to a settlement, according to documents filed with the California Northern District Court.

Let’s recall that, the the FTC sued the operators of Beam Financial, alleging that they falsely promised users high interest rates on their accounts and “24/7” access to their funds. The FTC alleges that Beam Financial Inc. and its founder and CEO Yinan Du, also known as Aaron Du, promised users of their free mobile banking app that they could make transfers out of their accounts and would receive their requested funds within three to five business days.

Instead, some users waited weeks or even months to receive their money despite repeated complaints to Beam, while others said they never received their money, according to the complaint.

On February 1, 2021, the parties in this case requested that the Court stay all proceedings in this matter pending the likely submission of a proposed stipulated order that would resolve all claims in the action.

Counsel for the FTC and counsel for the defendants have negotiated a proposed Stipulated Order for Permanent Injunction and Monetary Judgment, which has been reduced to writing and has been signed by the defendants.

The Proposed Final Order has not yet been signed by the FTC because settlements negotiated by FTC counsel must be reviewed by the FTC Commissioners, who approve or reject such settlements by majority vote. This review process within the FTC can require upwards of six weeks. It is the practice of FTC counsel to recommend to the Commissioners only settlements that counsel believe are likely to be approved. If approval is granted by the FTC Commissioners, the counsel will promptly sign the Proposed Final Order and submit it to the Court for its consideration.

Many consumers said Beam’s failure to provide their requested funds caused real financial harm, particularly for those who have lost income due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the reviewers of the Beam app on the Apple App and Google Play stores complained that they did not receive their requested withdrawals from Beam and had trouble reaching the company either by phone or by email, according to the complaint.

Beam blamed delays in providing the requested money on issues with unspecified “banking partners” or “technology partners” and promised the delays were temporary, according to the complaint.

In addition to making it difficult for consumers to access their funds, Beam also failed to give users the high interest rates the company promised, the FTC alleges. Beam repeatedly claimed that users would receive “the industry’s best possible rate” of at least 0.2 percent or 1.0 percent, according to the complaint. In fact, many new users received a much lower interest rate of 0.04 percent and stopped earning any interest after requesting that Beam return their funds.

The FTC alleges that Beam’s misrepresentations violate the FTC Act.