JP Morgan Chase has agreed to repay close to US$500,000 to former US prison inmates after it was found that it applied exorbitant charges to prepaid cards issued to prisoners. CNBC reports that the bank won a contract in 2008 to supply the cards, which were used by prisoners to access money they earned in prison or had sent to them. The Federal Court in Philadelphia accepted a class action claim that fees and charges applied to the accounts were much higher than those charged on similar cards sold outside the prison system. Inmates paid US$10 for a withdrawal, US$24.50 to replace a lost card and US$1.50 if the account was inactive for a month. The European banking crisis is unlikely to be solved through zero or negative interest rates, or by making banks hold extra capital, according to Adrian Blundell-Wignall, director in the OECD's Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs. Speaking to journalists following a lunchtime presentation to professional economists in Sydney, Blundell-Wignall suggested the high levels of non-performing loans on European bank balance sheets be dealt with first. He pointed to the approach of the US, which moved early to neutralise its banks' troubled assets through measure such as the TARP program, before concentrating on lifting leverage ratios. Capital levels are irrelevant if banks are carrying NPLs of over 40 per cent, as is the case in Greece, he pointed out.