Bank of America in Charlotte, N.C., was ordered by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to pay a $12 million penalty for submitting false mortgage lending data to the federal government.
The CFPB claimed in a press release that the $2.4 trillion-asset BofA loan officers, for at least four years, failed to ask mortgage applicants certain demographic questions as required under federal law. The loan officers allegedly reported falsely that the applicants had chosen not to respond.
“Bank of America violated a federal law that thousands of mortgage lenders have routinely followed for decades,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in the release. “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.”
The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act requires mortgage lenders to report information about loan applications and originations to the CFPB and other federal regulators.