That is what the authorities of the United States ordered on Tuesday Bank of America (BoA), the country’s second-largest bank, will pay a $250 million fine for charging double fees, opening “fake accounts” and not paying incentives promised to customers from their credit cards.

In a statement, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) indicated that the entity, which has committed other violations in the past, harmed “hundreds of thousands of consumers” over several years and through “multiple lines of products and services”.

The CFPB accuses BoA of “Repeatedly” charging the set fee of $35 for a declined transaction due to insufficient funds in the accountsomething he describes as a plan to “bring in junk commissions” and which he assures has brought “significant additional income” to the entity over the years.

He adds that since 2012, BoA employees have also exceeded sales targets and evaluation criteria have opened credit card accounts without the knowledge or consent of their customers, “illegally obtaining and using” your financial information to complete those requests without permission.

As a result of these actions, the regulator said, the bank charged unjustified commissions to customers, which negatively impacted their credit profile and had to spend time correcting “mistakes”. The opening of fake accounts sparked a scandal years ago within another major US bank, Wells Fargo, whose business was hampered by fines and measures taken to correct the problems.

Finally, BoA is accused of recruiting customers to open credit card accounts with offers of cash or points and then who have not paid incentives or bonuses “to tens of thousands” of them. The fine consists of approximately 100 million that will go to pay damages to consumers and another 150 million fine to the CFPB and the United States foreign exchange regulator.

BoA has previously been the subject of other fines, paying $225 million last year for problems with the government’s unemployment benefit disbursement during the Covid-19 pandemic, while it was charged $727 million almost a decade ago for related illegal practices. credit cards.