U.S. regulator fines TD Bank US$28M for faulty consumer reports

TORONTO — The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ordered TD Bank Group to pay US$28 million for repeatedly sharing inaccurate, negative information about its customers in the latest reprimand of the bank by regulators.

The U.S. regulator said Wednesday that TD has to pay US$7.76 million in total to tens of thousands of victims of its illegal actions, along with a US$2-million civil penalty.

It says TD shared information that contained systemic errors with consumer reporting companies, potentially tarnishing credit reports, screening reports for tenants and employees and other background checks.

“The CFPB’s investigation found that TD Bank illegally threatened the consumer reports of its customers with fraudulent information and then barely lifted a finger to fix it,” CFPB director Rohit Chopra said in a statement.

“TD Bank’s management clearly cared more about growth and expanding its empire through mergers. Regulators will need to focus major attention on TD Bank to change its course.”

Bank spokeswoman Miranda Garrison said TD self-identified the issues long before the settlement and has proactively improved its practices.

“TD co-operated fully to resolve this matter and is committed to continuing to deliver on its responsibilities to its customers,” she said in a statement.

The settlement comes as the bank continues to face scrutiny in the U.S. over its anti-money laundering program, where it expects to pay more than US$3 billion in monetary penalties to resolve the issue.

In August, TD agreed to pay a US$46.5 million penalty to the SEC plus a total of US$82 million to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission for record-keeping violations, one of 26 banks part of a settlement.

In March, the bank was fined $9.2 million in March by the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada for failure to report suspicious transactions.

In 2020, the CFPB required TD Bank to provide US$97 million in restitution to consumers for unlawful overdraft enrolment practices, plus a penalty of US$25 million.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:TD)

Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press