Bank of America Corp has been fined US$30 million by US regulators, who accused the bank of violating consumer protections for members of the military in collecting debts.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), a US Department of the Treasury division, on Friday announced the civil penalty against the second-largest US bank. The agency said Bank of America has started taking steps to correct the problems and “is committed to taking all necessary and appropriate steps” to do so.
The regulators said the bank violated the law protecting service members by taking improper legal action against military customers for delinquent credit-card accounts and overdrafts. The improper practices allegedly occurred in the period between January 2006 and the present.
The OCC also said Bank of America failed to put in place effective policies and procedures to ensure its compliance with the law, the US Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.
Bank of America, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, said it would continue to improve its compliance with the law.
“We have taken significant steps over the last several years, and will take further steps now, to ensure we have the right controls and processes in place to meet — and exceed — what is required by law and what our customers deserve and expect,” Andrew Plepler, the bank’s executive in charge of social responsibility and consumer policy, said in a statement.
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