Federal regulators accused Bank of America on Tuesday of harming customers by double-dipping on fees, withholding credit card rewards and opening fake accounts. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Bank of America 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 to pay $60 million in fines. Some of the allegations are reminiscent of the Wells Fargo scandal last decade that involved opening millions of bank accounts without customer authorization. The Associated Press has the story:
Bank of America accused of Doubling Fees
Newslooks- (AP)
Bank of America must pay more than $100 million to customers for double-dipping on some fees, withholding reward bonuses and opening accounts without customer consent.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency also found that the bank’s double-dipping on fees was illegal.
Bank of America will pay $90 million in penalties to its organization and $60 million in penalties to the OCC, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Tuesday.
Bank of America, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, serves 68 million people and small business clients. 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 U.S.
“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 did not immediately respond to requests from The Associated Press for comment.
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 repeatedly charged 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 credit card account bonuses.
Since at least 2012, Bank of America employees illegally applied for and enrolled consumers in credit card accounts without their knowledge or authorization, the CFPB said.
Wells Fargo has paid billions in fines after it was determined that the San Francisco bank opened millions of unauthorized bank accounts in order to meet unrealistic sales goals.
In 2014 the CFPB ordered Bank of America to pay $727 million for illegal credit card practices. Last year it was ordered to pay a $10 million civil penalty over unlawful garnishments. Also in 2022, the CFPB and OCC fined Bank of America $225 million and required it to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in redress to consumers for botched disbursement of state unemployment benefits at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
