Bank of America Under Investigation By The CFPB For Potential Unauthorized Account Opening

Bank of America (BoA) is currently under investigation by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). CFPB is trying to determine if BoA opened accounts without authorization back in 2014 to meet sales goals. In 2016 Wells Fargo was ordered to pay $185 million in fines and fired 5,300 employees due to a similar issue, Wells Fargo then settled a class action for unauthorized account openings and paid another $142 million.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency investigated more than 40 banks, including Bank of America after the Wells Fargo saga came to light and no charges were laid. Because of this BoA have requested that the CFPB investigation be modified and that information kept confidential. A spokesperson for Bank of America has stated:

In previous reviews, we have worked with regulators to confirm we have the right processes and controls in place to govern our sales practices, and that we have not experienced any systemic issues. We will continue to cooperate with the CFPB, and look forward to wrapping up this investigation and demonstrating what prior reviews confirmed

 

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Charles Mann
Charles Mann (@guest_814192)
September 24, 2019 16:28

Happy to hear the CFPB is looking into this; it proves that filing a legitimate complaint is beneficial to all consumers and particularly the followers of the good Doctor Of Credit!

Anonymous166
Anonymous166 (@guest_813855)
September 24, 2019 03:58

BREAKING NEWS: Bank of America is a sleazy, shitty, dishonest bank! But next up, is the Pope really Catholic?

Tom
Tom (@guest_813758)
September 23, 2019 22:14

Just do more promos

Kyle ❤️
Kyle ❤️ (@guest_813738)
September 23, 2019 21:58

Thank you for the unbiased reporting!

sonia
sonia (@guest_813708)
September 23, 2019 20:18

Good! BofA is the stingiest bank ever for me.

Curmudgeon
Curmudgeon (@guest_813761)
September 23, 2019 22:17

Do you have any money on deposit with them? Do you actively use the accounts with them? If not, that’s probably why.

sonia
sonia (@guest_813873)
September 24, 2019 07:05

just several thousand in their savings and 2 CCs. How much do you have with them and how many CCs do you have that has activity in order to get the good promos? thanks!

Curmudgeon
Curmudgeon (@guest_814204)
September 24, 2019 16:39

I’ve got preferred rewards (platinum, aluminum, cesium? I don’t know) and spend thousands a month on my cards. Not sure how many cards I have – a bunch of personal and bunch of business cards, multiple business vehicle loans and they used to have the mortgage on my house, plus checking and savings accounts.

So I’m probably not the typical BoA customer, but I’ll share what the banker told me when I first opened my account years ago and questioned why they wanted a good credit score for new accounts. He said they weren’t interested in a customer with a checking account that had $10, or just a savings account with a few bucks in it.

They wanted customers who had checking, savings, vehicle loans, mortgages, investments and credit cards with lots of spending with them, so as long as they give me lots of points and bonuses, that’s what I try to do.

Curmudgeon
Curmudgeon (@guest_814209)
September 24, 2019 16:42

Also, if you’ve got “several thousand in their savings” then you’re earning practically no interest. Move that to a high interest account.

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/high-interest-savings-to-get/

Or at the very least, open a Merrill Lynch account and put it in a money market or short term bond fund and get better than .00001% interest.

Jackson Rogerson
Jackson Rogerson (@guest_813691)
September 23, 2019 19:40

This was reported last week at least 5 days ago. Old news.

There is always going to be minor amount of fraud in any institution. There is a difference between a few people and a few accounts being created and what happened at Wells Fargo unknown to the top executives and shareholders.

As long as no one loses money or is harmed and the bank makes things right I fully stand behind them.

Matt
Matt (@guest_813749)
September 23, 2019 22:09

I know things move fast nowadays, but since when is 5 days ago old news?

SamL
SamL (@guest_813659)
September 23, 2019 18:38

So there 40+ banks in addition to BoA, and they’re all being investigated because they might possibly have done what WF did. But are there any actual facts that suggest this happen, or is CFPB just doing its due diligence by checking?

P
P (@guest_813648)
September 23, 2019 18:10

They haven’t approved me for a cc since 2017 so here’s hoping they haven’t opened one on my behalf without my approval.

AndreRamirez
AndreRamirez (@guest_813634)
September 23, 2019 17:42

Laws mean nothing without consequences for breaking them. Lets see if they get a slap on the wrist as has been the running trend lately for these mega corps…

Mr G
Mr G (@guest_813627)
September 23, 2019 17:17

In other news, Yahoo redesigned their logo.