Citizens Bank Fined for Failing to Credit Consumers for Full Deposits

Citizens Financial Group Inc. has been ordered to pay $31.5 million for failing to credit the full amount of money customers deposited into their accounts.

The order was part of a joint enforcement action announced Wednesday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

The CFPB's investigation found that Citizens didn't always give consumers full credit when the amount scanned on the deposit slip was less than the amount of the checks and cash customers actually deposited. The investigation looked at practices from January 2008 through November 2013 and found that the bank violated the Dodd-Frank law in not fixing the discrepancies. The bank's actions resulted in consumers being shorted millions of dollars over the years, the CFPB said.

The bureau said Citizens falsely told customers it would verify their deposits even though the bank's policy was to verify and correct deposit inaccuracies only if they were above $25 or $50 thresholds.

Citizens is neither admitting or denying wrongdoing and said it is working with regulators to compensate customers quickly.

A spokeswoman said the bank used certain practices to "ensure the next-day crediting of deposits in situations when deposit slips contained mathematical errors. However, these past practices and disclosures, principally before early 2011, could have been better." The bank implemented a new teller system in the fourth quarter of 2013, she said.

In addition to under-crediting customers, the errors on the deposit slips also over-credited some depositors, the spokeswoman said. Customers who were over credited will keep the additional funds and those who were under credited will be reimbursed, she said.

The bank will have to pay about $11 million in refunds to consumers and a $7.5 million penalty for the violations to the CFPB. The FDIC also ordered a $3 million civil penalty, and the OCC ordered a $10 million penalty.

Write to AnnaMaria Andriotis at [e-mail]

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