WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today ordered Bank of America to pay a $12 million penalty for submitting false mortgage lending information to the federal government under a long-standing federal law. For at least four years, hundreds of Bank of America loan officers failed to ask mortgage applicants certain demographic questions as required under federal law, and then falsely reported that the applicants had chosen not to respond. Under the CFPB’s order, Bank of America must pay $12 million into the CFPB’s victims relief fund.
“Bank of America violated a federal law that thousands of mortgage lenders have routinely followed for decades,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “It is illegal to report false information to federal regulators, and we will be taking additional steps to ensure that Bank of America stops breaking the law.”
Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) is a global systemically important bank headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. As of June 2023, the bank had $2.4 trillion in assets, which makes it the second-largest bank in the United States.