The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fined Bank of America $12 million for misreporting mortgage applicants’ race, ethnicity, and sex information to the bureau, as required by the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA).
The CFPB says BofA failed to collect the information but told the bureau those applicants chose not to respond.
Congress passed HMDA in 1975. HMDA gathers data on mortgage applicants to help determine if financial institutions are engaging in borrower discrimination.
BofA received a customer complaint in 2020 and launched a review. It found that 113 loan officers did not provide the information on 100% of the applications taken in a three-month period from January-March 2020. It later expanded the review to 290 loan officers for applications taken between 2016-2021 and found that an additional 290 loan officers had incorrectly reported applicants’ race and ethnicity between 2016-2021.
Bank of America was ordered to provide training for employees on proper data collection as well as monthly reports and audits to ensure accuracy.
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