Bank Of America Must Pay $30M For Military Relief Law Violations [View all]

The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) aims to protect members of the Armed Forces from unfair and harmful practices that jeopardize their financial well-being while deployed. It shouldn’t be surprising then, that failing to adhere to those protections is frowned upon by federal regulators. Just ask Bank of America, which is now on the hook for $30 million stemming from SCRA violations related to more than 73,000 servicemember accounts.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced that Bank of America must pay the hefty fine and provide remediation to the affected customer accounts after an investigation found the bank violated SCRA when it came to collecting debts from military customers.

According to the OCC consent order [PDF], since 2006 Bank of America took improper legal action against military customers for delinquent credit card accounts and overdrafts.

In many cases, investigators found that deficiencies in BofA’s enterprise compliance risk management function led to unsafe and unsound practices and violations of SCRA.

For example, the investigation found that when the bank filed legal action against military customers to collect debts, employees asserted in affidavits that they had personal knowledge of the alleged delinquencies, when in fact they didn’t.

http://consumerist.com/2015/06/01/bank-of-america-must-pay-30m-for-military-relief-law-violations/