RSSCincinnati’s Fifth Third Bancorp is facing potential action from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over allegations it opened unauthorized accounts, according to Bloomberg Law.
CFPB staff plan to file an enforcement action against the $168 billion bank over the alleged fake accounts, Fifth Third said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The bank said in its filing “the facts do not warrant an enforcement proceeding” and it intends to defend itself “vigorously.”
Details of the potential investigation, including its scope and timing, were not revealed. Fifth Third said it had set aside reserves to deal with the potential action. The extent of the bank’s wrongdoing was also unspecified.
Wells Fargo, long embroiled in a string of scandals, recently reached a $3 billion settlement with the Justice Department and the SEC over its fake accounts scandal. It had previously paid out $190 million in 2016 over its fake account scandals to the CFPB, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the City and County of Los Angeles. The San Francisco bank was also fined $1 billion by the CFPB and OCC over its mortgage and auto loan practices in 2018.
Bank of America might be next in the CFPB’s sights, Bloomberg Law said: CFPB Director Kathleen Kraninger last fall declined to close an investigation into alleged fake account generation at the bank stretching back to 2014.
