The maximum civil money penalties (CMPs) the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) may assess against banks for violations under the agency’s jurisdiction have been adjusted upward for the year ahead by 1.764%, rounded to the nearest dollar.
The adjustment is applicable to penalties assessed on or after Jan. 1, 2020, for conduct occurring on or after Nov. 2, 2015, according to a notice published in the Federal Register on Tuesday.
Announcements of similar adjustments are expected soon from the other federal financial institution regulators, which are required to publish the adjustments by Jan. 15.
The CMP adjustments are made yearly under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015. The statute requires that federal agencies make annual adjustments to the maximum amount of each CMP they administer. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is required to issue guidance to federal agencies no later than Dec. 15 of each year providing an inflation adjustment multiplier (the inflation adjustment factor, which was set at 1.01764) applicable to CMPs assessed in the following year. The agencies are required to publish their CMPs, as adjusted using the OMB multiplier, by Jan. 15 of the applicable year.
The OMB issued its guidance Dec. 16, applying the inflation adjustment factor to the maximum CMPs that were allowable in 2019 for national banks and federal savings associations. Charts showing the adjusted penalty amounts are included in the Register notice.