BANKS BEST AT BANK ROBBERY

July 11, 2023 -Durt Fibo

Bank of America has just acquiesced to paying $250 million in penalties and restitution after being headlocked by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), who accused the bank of violating multitudinous laws since 2012.

The charges stated, among other things, that B of A “wrongfully withheld credit card rewards, double-dipped on fees, and opened accounts without consent.” More specifically, according to the CFPB, the bank would “double-dip” its $35 fee for declined transactions by charging repeatedly for the same transaction, withheld promised credit-card account bonuses to tens of thousands of customers, and illegally opened credit-card accounts in customers’ names without their knowledge – at least since 2012. “These practices are illegal,” the CFPB explained.

Or, as Bertolt Brecht once wrote: “What is the robbing of a bank compared to the founding of one?”