OCC Levies $30 Million Penalty Against BofA Over Credit Protections

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has assessed a $30 million civil money penalty against Bank of America and ordered remediation to approximately 73,000 affected customer accounts. The OCC took the actions against the bank for violations of law and unsafe or unsound practices in connection with the bank’s non-home loan compliance with the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA), and unsafe or unsound practices in connection with non-home debt collection litigation practices.

The enforcement action is intended to correct deficiencies in the bank’s practices and procedures related to its SCRA-compliance program and to address the preparation and notarization of affidavits and other sworn documents used in the bank’s debt collection litigation.

The OCC’s enforcement action also directed the bank to improve its SCRA-compliance policies and procedures for determining whether military personnel are eligible for requested SCRA-related benefits, for ensuring that the bank calculates the SCRA benefits correctly, and for verifying the military service status of servicemembers prior to seeking or obtaining default judgments on non-home loans.  The enforcement action also directed the bank to improve its enterprise-wide compliance risk management program.