U.S. Bancorp said the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is considering “a potential enforcement action” tied to the Minneapolis company’s handling of prepaid cards for unemployment benefits.
The $593 billion-asset company’s disclosure comes months after it said the CFPB was investigating the matter. U.S. Bancorp reiterated in its annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it is “cooperating fully” with the probe.
The CFPB and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency last summer fined Bank of America $225 million for practices tied to its prepaid card program for disbursing unemployment benefits in California.
Congress approved the program in March 2020. The Labor Department’s inspector general determined as part of a recent audit found a high rate of potential fraud tied to two pandemic-era unemployment programs.