Maurice Blackburn Lawyers and litigation funder Bentham IMF issued statements yesterday confirming that they had commenced "open class" proceedings in the New South Wales Supreme Court, seeking to expand the bank fees case to all customers charged late payment fees and not just those who had signed up to the original class action.The latest claim is against Westpac, St George Bank, Citibank, BankSA and ANZ. If successful, all customers charged late payment fees by any of those banks would be eligible for compensation.The first round of the bank fees case was concluded in February, when Federal Court judge Michelle Gordon ruled that ANZ's late payment fees were set "well above cost recovery".Gordon said that ANZ operated "in a framework where it regarded exception fees as a part of its revenue, which contributed significantly to profit."The Federal Court had earlier ruled that late payments were capable of being penalties (and therefore covered by the claim) but knocked out a number of other "exception fees" from consideration.The February judgment is being appealed by both sides of the dispute. The claimants are hoping to have honour, dishonour and over limit fees included in proceedings.ANZ was the first bank to go to trial but eventually the class action will cover nine financial institutions. In a statement issued yesterday, Maurice Blackburn said the open class action would also be extended to the nine institutions, which include Westpac, Citibank, ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, NAB, St George, BankSA, Bankwest and American Express.Bentham IMF said it would fund the open class proceedings.