Newsroom

June 01, 2015

BofA fined $30M for SCRA non-compliance

Bank of America was slapped late last week with a $30 million fine and ordered to provide remediation to 73,000 affected customer accounts for non-compliance with the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.

Both credit unions and banks are required to comply with SCRA.

The fine and order for BofA were from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. OCC said the penalties were assessed 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."

OCC said the enforcement action is intended to correct deficiencies in the bank's practices and procedures related to its SCRA compliance program. It was also assessed, OCC said, to "address the preparation and notarization of affidavits and other sworn documents used in the bank's debt collection litigation."

OCC 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.