The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has announced it is ordering Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) to pay a $12 million penalty for running afoul of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) by submitting false mortgage lending information to the federal government.
According to the CFPB, hundreds of Bank of America loan officers failed to ask mortgage applicants certain demographic questions over period of four years. The bank then falsely reported that the applicants had chosen not to respond, the CFPB added.
The CFPB also noted the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank had $2.4 trillion in assets as of June, making it the nation’s second-largest bank.
“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.”
Bank of America did not immediately issue a response to the CFPB’s action.
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What “certain demographic questions” weren’t asked? Was it really important to the borrower/loan? Who gets the $12mil? The borrowers? Lawyers? Would the borrowers have gotten a better rate on their loan from answering a demographic question?
CFPB is just trying to keep the playing (lending) field level.