Bank of America must pay $90 million dollars in fines for opening false accounts and illegal fees

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ordered Bank of America on Tuesday to pay some $90 million in fines and more than $100 million to customers affected by the opening of fake accounts, withholding of rewards on credit cards and high fees.

The second largest bank in the United States will also have to pay $60 million in fines, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. CFPB Director Rohit Chopra noted that “Bank of America improperly withheld credit card rewards, doubled fees and opened accounts without consent,” he said.

According to the official, “these practices are illegal and undermine customer trust. The CFPB will end these practices throughout the banking system,” Chopra said. It is estimated that Bank of America has approximately 68 million customers, therefore, what the bank has done is classified as a violation of various consumer financial protection laws.

The CFPB detailed that for several years Bank of America had harmed many of its customers in multiple lines of products and services, it said while mentioning that “The bank's disclosures did not clearly explain what multiple fees could result from the same transaction. Additionally, customers did not have the ability to know when or if a merchant would resubmit a transaction to the bank for payment and therefore could not reasonably avoid assessing multiple fees for the same transaction,” he said.

According to investigations, if a transaction was declined, the bank charged customers $35 dollars. Although, Bank of America said they had voluntarily reduced overdraft fees and eliminated all non-sufficient funds fees last year. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau indicated that it continued to illegally withhold bonuses from thousands of customers.

This is not the first time Bank of America has been fined by regulators and must pay some $250 million in total.