(Reuters) -Bank of America on Tuesday agreed to pay $150 million in fines to U.S. regulators and over $100 million to harmed consumers to settle claims the bank systematically double-charged fees, withheld promised credit card perks and misappropriated customers' information.
Over multiple years, Bank of America reaped tens of millions of dollars by charging multiple fees to customers who did not have enough funds in their accounts, regulators said in statements on Tuesday.
From at least 2012, bank employees also illegally applied for and enrolled consumers in credit card accounts without their knowledge, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said in its statement.
The bank, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, also failed to make good on cash rewards and bonus points promised to tens of thousands of credit card customers, according to the CFPB.
To resolve the charges, the bank agreed to pay over $100 million to harmed consumers and pay penalties of $90 million to the CFPB and $60 million to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the CFPB said.
"We voluntarily reduced overdraft fees and eliminated all non-sufficient fund fees in the first half of 2022. As a result of these industry leading changes, revenue from these fees has dropped more than 90 percent," Bank of America said in a statement.
(Reporting by Rami Ayyub and Chris PrenticeAdditional reporting by Saeed Azhar, Jonathan Stempel and Emma Rumney)
