Federal regulators said Tuesday they found that Bank of America harmed customers by double-billing, blocking credit card payments, and opening fake accounts, all in violation of federal securities laws. different markets. . As a result, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Bank of America (BAC) to pay more than $100 million to customers and $90 million in penalties. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency also ordered Bank of America (BAC) to pay $60 million in fines. The bank is the second largest in the United States, serving 68 million people and small businesses. Some of the allegations are reminiscent of the Wells Fargo scandal of the past decade that involved opening millions of bank accounts without customer authorization. The CFPB said Bank of America "has harmed hundreds of thousands of consumers over the years and across many product lines and services." Among them, the CFPB and OCC found that the bank, which usually charges customers $35 if their transaction is rejected due to insufficient funds, allowed these fees to be "charged multiple times" for a business group. business, incurring a debt of "tens of tens of millions of dollars". dollars in fees for transactions sent,” according to the OCC. This will happen after the first transaction has been rejected and if the third customer has re-issued the payment to the customer's account, who may not have enough money to cover the expense. During this time, the customer will also receive an insufficient deposit of $35 or an overdraft fee of $35. Bank of America said in an email to CNN that the debt was waived last year.
"We voluntarily reduced the debt and eliminated all the insufficient funds in the first half of 2022. As a result of these changes leading the company, the income from these fees has fallen by more than 90%," said the spokesperson. The CFPB also said that the bank will offer special cash-back offers when signing up new credit card customers, but is restricting these illegal amounts from tens of thousands of customers. thousands of customers. And since at least 2012, the company said, in order to meet the incentive goals that support the current market and improve their ratings, bankers "have been illegally soliciting and registering customers and credit cards without the knowledge or consent of consumers”. This includes using or obtaining credit reports of customers without their consent, making unauthorized charges to customers, damaging their credit reports, and trying to correct mistakes made by the bank. Following the breach announced by regulators on Tuesday, Bank of America will pay more than $250 million to companies and customers affected by the breach. But this is not the first time the bank has been fined. And those reported on Tuesday are less than the previous ones. In 2014, the CFPB ordered it to pay $727 million in restitution to consumers for illegal credit card practices. Last year, he was ordered to pay $10 million in civil fines for illegal cosmetics and was also ordered to pay consumers $225 million for "failure to pay unemployment benefits from the state." during the COVID-19 pandemic".
“Bank of America wrongfully withheld credit card rewards, double-dipped on fees, and opened accounts without consent,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a statement. “These practices are illegal and undermine customer trust. The CFPB will be putting an end to these practices across the banking system.” "The bank’s disclosures did not clearly explain that multiple fees could result from the same transaction. Additionally, customers had no ability to know when or if a merchant would resubmit a transaction to the bank for payment and therefore could not reasonably avoid the assessment of multiple fees for the same transaction,” the OCC said in its statement.
