Auto-Lending Discrimination and Illegal Credit Card Practices Prove Costly for Prominent Regional Bank

Fifth Third Bank, which operates roughly 1,300 branches in twelve states, is the subject of joint enforcement actions by the Department of Justice and the CFPB. As a result of an auto-lending enforcement action that rose from an Equal Credit Opportunity Act examination, the bank will pay $18 million to minority status borrowers and revise its pricing and compensation systems to protect against discrimination. In addition, due to an action for deceptive marketing of credit card add-on products, it will pay approximately $3 million to aggrieved customers and incur a $500,000 penalty.   [9/29/15]