A court in Brazil ruled against Banco Alfa SA in a 3 million Brazilian reais lawsuit accusing the bank of inappropriately charging interest on the early termination of financing, according to Estadão.

In the ruling, which stems from a complaint from 2008, the Federal District's Court of Justice found that the bank failed to provide consumers the proportional discount on prepaid loans required under the government's consumer defense code.

Banco Alfa could end up paying well above the 3 million reais in the judgement, according to the head of the consumer defense entity responsible for the lawsuit, as the amount is based only on claimants dating to the 2008 filing of the complaint.

Banco Alfa, like publicly listed Banco Alfa de Investimento SA, is a part of Conglomerado Financeiro Alfa.

As of March 30, US$1 was equivalent to 3.13 Brazilian reais.