National Bank to Pay $30 Million Civil Penalty to OCC for Alleged SCRA Violations

OCC SCRA Enforcement

On May 29, the OCC entered into a consent order with a national bank to resolve allegations that it (i) violated the SCRA; (ii) engaged in unsafe and unsound practices in its efforts to comply with the SCRA; and (iii) engaged in unsafe and unsound practices in regards to its sworn document and collections litigation practices. The OCC claimed that the bank did not comply with the SCRA by failing to: (i) maintain effective policies and procedures; (ii) devote adequate financial, staffing and managerial resources to guarantee the SCRA compliance process was properly administered; and (iii) provide sufficient internal controls, compliance risk management, internal audit, third party management, and training related to its SCRA compliance process. In relation to the sworn document and collections litigation process, the OCC asserted that the bank’s deficiencies in its enterprise compliance risk management function resulted in unsafe and unsound practices, including failure to ensure that affidavits filed in court followed proper notary procedures. Under the terms of the consent order for a civil money penalty, the OCC will collect $30,000,000 from the bank.