Bank of America must pay more than $100 million to customers for doubling some fees, withholding bonus rewards, and opening accounts without customer consent.
Bank of America will pay $90 million in penalties to his organization and $60 million in penalties to the OCC, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Tuesday.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency found the double dipping of bank rates to be illegal.
Bank of America, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, serves 68 million people and small business customers. The bank had $2.4 trillion in consolidated assets and $1.9 trillion in domestic deposits as of March 31, making it the second largest bank in the US.
The bank did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.
Bank of America had a policy of charging customers $35 after the bank declined a transaction because the customer did not have enough funds in their account, the CFPB said. The agency determined that the bank double-dipped by allowing fees to be charged repeatedly for the same transaction.
Bank of America also offered people cash rewards and bonus points when signing up for a card, but the CFPB said the bank illegally withheld promised bonuses for credit card accounts.
Since at least 2012, Bank of America employees illegally solicited and enrolled consumers in credit card accounts without their knowledge or authorization, the CFPB said.
Wells Fargo paid billions in penalties after it was determined that the San Francisco bank opened millions of unauthorized bank accounts to achieve unrealistic sales targets.
“Bank of America improperly withheld credit card rewards, doubled fees and opened accounts without consent,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a prepared statement. “These practices are illegal and undermine customer trust.”
In 2014, the CFPB ordered Bank of America to pay $727 million for illegal credit card practices. Last year he was ordered to pay a $10 million civil penalty for illegal liens. Also in 2022, the CFPB and OCC fined Bank of America $225 million and required it to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation to consumers for the failed disbursement of state unemployment benefits at the height of the pandemic. COVID-19.
