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By John Zasada, JD, CAMS – Shareholder, Financial Institutions Group

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced a May 10, 2023, consent order against MUFG Union Bank for engaging in deceptive practices related to its disclosures not matching its actual practices, plus issued a $15 million civil money penalty. According to the OCC, discrepancies were found between what was in the bank’s account disclosures and the actions they took. Below are examples:

  • All customers of The Private Bank Program should have received certain fee waivers and discounts based on what the account disclosures indicated. However, during this period, the institution did not apply these fee waivers and discounts as described. Fee waivers and discounts were only applied to certain customers of the program.
  • Fees for safe deposit box rentals for certain customers should have been waived or discounted, as indicated in account disclosures. However, during this period, they did not do so as described.
  • The institution indicated in the account disclosures it would waive monthly service charge fees for deposit accounts under certain conditions, including if the customer had a mortgage with the bank or they maintained minimum deposit balances across multiple linked accounts. Regarding customers with mortgages, the disclosures did not state the eligible customers must affirmatively request their mortgage be linked to their deposit account to receive the monthly service charge fee waiver. Even when customers requested to link either a mortgage or other deposit account, the bank did not always implement the requests. Consequently, the institution did not apply monthly service charge fee waivers as described.

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