The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Citizens Financial Group were able to reach an agreement on the CFPB complaint.
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As part of this agreement, the financial institution will pay a fine of $9 million to settle charges that Citizens Bank, a subsidiary of Citizens Financial Group, failed to provide acceptable management of disputed credit card transactions and did not respond properly to reports of fraud activity. The relevant information is contained in the CFPB press release, which was published last Tuesday, May 23.
CFPB Director Rohit Chopra says that federal law provides credit card holders with the opportunity to challenge financial operations and eliminate billing errors. He also noted that against the background of approaching the amount of outstanding credit card debt to $1 trillion, the regulator will closely monitor the behavior of financial services market players.
Citizens Financial Group reported that the complaint was related to billing errors and subsequent problems resulting from these shortcomings in the work. The organization also notes that about 2% of customers faced the corresponding problems. The financial institution stated that the mistakes were made almost eight years ago.
Citizens General Counsel Polly Klein said that the settlement agreement finally leaves in the past the problems that were independently solved back in 2015 on a voluntary basis, noting that the organization does not agree with the position of the regulator on this issue.
During the 2020 trial, the CFPB claimed that Citizens Bank had committed violations of the law governing the processes and algorithms of procedures in the field of lending. The regulator accused the lender of ignoring customer reports of fraud and errors, which were not followed by compensation. The CFPB claimed three years ago that the bank did not reimburse all financial expenses and commissions to consumers. Also, the lender was accused of not providing certain persons with notifications of confirmation and refusal of payment in response to their reports of errors in invoicing and did not disclose the required credit advice to individuals.
As we have reported earlier, Citizens Financial CEO Says Regional Banks Can Compete.
Serhii Mikhailov
Serhii’s track record of study and work spans six years at the Faculty of Philology and eight years in the media, during which he has developed a deep understanding of various aspects of the industry and honed his writing skills; his areas of expertise include fintech, payments, cryptocurrency, and financial services, and he is constantly keeping a close eye on the latest developments and innovations in these fields, as he believes that they will have a significant impact on the future direction of the economy as a whole.
