CFPB probes fake credit card accounts at Bank of America

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has been probing of Bank of America (BoA) for allegedly opening customer credit card accounts with authorization a la Wells Fargo.

The BoA investigation emerged after the bureau posted documents to its site showing the back and forth regarding turning over emails and other records with the bank’s attorneys, one of whom acknowledged a “vanishingly small” number of “potentially unauthorized credit card accounts.”

The bank also admitted it didn’t require signatures of intent from customers opening accounts in its branches.

“These issues have been thoroughly investigated and we have worked with regulators to confirm that we have the right processes and controls in place to govern our sales practices, and that we have not experienced any systemic issues,” American Banker cited BoA spokesman Andy Aldridge as saying in an email pledging to work with the CFPB.

“The CFPB’s investigation of Bank of America should be a wake-up call for other financial institutions. Increasing security concerns have put them on constant watch,” said Zviki Ben-Ishay, CEO and co-founder at Lightico.

“From how they store customer data to how they receive authorization, regulators are keeping a close eye on nearly every transactional process,” he said. “Having digital documentation of customer interactions has become necessary to proving compliance, and banks need to adopt the tools that ensure they’re meeting today’s standards.”