WASHINGTON – Five years after Wells Fargo was slapped with a $203 million judgement involving overdraft fees for debit-card purchases, many banks still engage in similar practices.

Almost half of the nation’s 20 largest banks hit customers with similar charges for online bill payments and other kinds of transactions, according to an analysis for CNHI newspapers by a banking research firm.

Critics say the overdraft policies help banks make billions of dollars a year.

The banks’ practice involves processing the largest charges received first, rather than in chronological order.

That “empties bank accounts faster,” said Michael Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending, a watchdog group that’s called on federal regulators to end the practice known as high-to-low posting.

Richard McCune, who represented Wells Fargo’s California customers in a class-action suit over the policy, illustrated how it works:

“Assume I have $50 in the bank and go to McDonald’s and buy something with my debit card for $10, and then I go to Nordstrom and buy something for $60.”

If the charges are posted in order, the customer is hit with only one overdraft fee – for the Nordstrom purchase, he said.

Posting the larger purchase first, however, puts the account over the limit and allows the bank to charge two overdraft fees.

Someone who makes other purchases could be hit with several overdraft fees — typically $34 a shot.

At least two of the nation’s 50 largest banks — Pittsburgh-based First National Bank and Sun Trust — continue to post the largest debit-card transactions first, according to a survey by Informa Research Services. The company, which studies banking practices for financial institutions and others, reviewed the prevalence of overdraft fees for CNHI News.

Both banks confirmed their policies.

Sun Trust spokeswoman Angela Amberg said the bank will stop the practice Nov. 4 and generally post charges chronologically.

First National Bank spokeswoman Jennifer Reel said in an email that the bank makes its procedures transparent and is being consistent by not changing its policies.

“Regulators continue to study this issue and once they provide their final guidance, we will continue to comply with all regulatory requirements,” she said. The bank has 300 offices in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio and West Virginia.

Texas Capital Bank, which only has business customers, also posts the largest debit card, ATM, and electronic payments first, spokesman Thaddeus Herrick acknowledged.

In recent hearings before congressional committees, Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf apologized over the bank’s latest controversy – over opening accounts or applying for credit cards for more than 2 million people without their knowledge.

Stumpf, whose resignation was announced Wednesday, told Congress that taking advantage of customers by opening bogus accounts did not fit Wells Fargo’s culture. However, the bank was hit with the $203 million judgement just six years ago in a class action over its posting policies, which U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup described in his decision as “gouging” and “profiteering.”

The bank stopped the high-to-low practice for debit cards in 2011 and for electronic payments such as recurring bill payments in 2014, spokesman Kris Dahl said. It now posts charges in the order they’re received.

Many large banks also now post debit-card transactions chronologically, or with the lowest first, according to the Informa survey.

Calhoun, at the Center for Responsible Lending, said that may help. But many banks continue to post other kinds of transactions highest-to-lowest, including those made over the Automated Clearing House system and paper checks.

Those transactions include online bill pay, in which customers enter bank routing numbers to have money taken out of their accounts. They also include increasingly popular online payment methods such as PayPal or Venmo.

Last year, more than 24 billion electronic payments, worth $41.6 trillion, went out over the ACH system – an increase of 1.3 billion payments over the year before, according to the industry group that runs the system.

That worries Pew Charitable Trusts researcher Joy Hackenbracht.

Taking out the largest ACH transactions first still results in emptying out accounts faster and causing more overdraft fees, particularly as the popularity of those kinds of payments grows with technology, she said.

Calhoun noted that the majority of overdrafts are caused by bounced checks and ACH transactions.

“It’s still a major concern,” he said.

Eight of the 20 largest banks – and 15 of the top 50 – still post some types of items including ACH payments in a high-to-low order, according to the Informa survey. Among them are Bank of America, Citizens Bank, Union Bank, and Comerica.

According to a 2014 Wall Street Journal article, another research firm, Moebs Services Inc., found 275 of 430 banks that posted checking transactions in a high-to-low order were small banks with assets less than $1 billion.

Pew and consumer groups including the Center for Responsible Lending have called on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to ban all high-to-low posting, including for ACH transactions.

According to the bureau, the largest 628 banks made $11.16 billion from overdraft fees in 2015.

The fees represented an average of 8 percent of a bank’s income. For 10 percent of the banks, overdraft fees were almost one-fifth of their revenue.

Banks used to cover small checks if there were insufficient funds in a customer’s account as a courtesy, but they have come to rely on overdraft fees for revenue.

Banks say they’re responding to what consumers want, and many have taken steps to cut down on overdraft fees.

Wells Fargo’s Dahl said its policy gave precedence to paying larger items — such as mortgage, rent and car payments — “which are typically customers’ high-priority payments.”

Spokespeople for Citizens and Union banks gave the same explanation for how ACH transactions are processed.

“Our customers have indicated they prefer larger transactions, such as mortgage, rent or car payments, which typically clear through the ACH system, to post first,” said Union Bank spokeswoman Juanita Gutierrez.

Some banks say they’ve sought to minimize overdraft fees by stopping the charges for purchases under $5.

Others, including First National Bank, cap the number of fees charged in a day, said Reel. First National also provides ways, such as mobile alerts, to help customers avoid them.

Several banks noted that whether customers are subject to overdraft fees is their choice. Customers are required to opt in to overdraft protection, which exposes them to fees.

However, a Pew survey in 2013 found the majority of people who’d signed up for overdraft protection did not know it.

A majority also said they’d rather have charges declined if there are insufficient funds, instead of getting hit with a bank’s overdraft fee.

Kery Murakami is the Washington, D.C. reporter for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Contact him at kmurakami@cnhi.com.