(NEXSTAR) – Bank of America will pay a $12 million fine to settle charges that it submitted false mortgage data to the federal government, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced Tuesday.
The second-largest U.S. bank did not admit or deny wrongdoing in the case, which alleges that hundreds of loan officers, over at least a three-month period between 2016 and 2020, failed to ask 100 percent of applicants legally-required questions about their race, ethnicity and sex, then reported that the applicants chose not to give that information.
“Bank of America violated a federal law that thousands of mortgage lenders have routinely followed for decades,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra in a statement. “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.”
The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, enacted in 1975, requires lenders to publicly report information about mortgages that will "help show whether lenders are serving the housing needs of their communities" and not engaging in discriminatory lending practices, according to the CFPB.
A Bank of America spokesperson told Nexstar that the bank collected demographic data in 99 percent of applications during the years reviewed by the CFPB.
"After receiving one complaint in 2020, we conducted a review and notified the government, which prompted this inquiry," spokesman Bill Halldin said in a statement. "As the CFPB notes, we took additional steps in 2020 and 2021 to enhance our monitoring and training to ensure employees ask applicants for required racial, ethnic and gender information. This data collection issue had no impact on applications."
The $12 million will be deposited in the CFPB's victims relief fund.
