ACI Worldwide fined $25 mln for multibillion-dollar mortgage payment 'fiasco'

ACI Worldwide

27/06/2023 14:57

June 27 (Reuters) - The top U.S. consumer finance
watchdog on Tuesday said it had fined the Nebraska payment
processor ACI Worldwide  ACIW.O  $25 million for improperly
processing more than $2 billion in mortgage payment transactions
without customer authorization.
    The transactions occurred in April 2021 and affected nearly
500,000 homeowners with mortgages served by Mr. Cooper, exposing
many to overdraft and insufficient funds fees, according to the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
    "The CFPB's investigation found that ACI perpetrated the
2021 Mr. Cooper mortgage fiasco that impacted homeowners across
the country," CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a statement,
adding that customer accounts had since been fixed but that the
agency was penalizing the company for inconveniencing hundreds
of thousands of borrowers.
    ACI Worldwide Corp and a subsidiary, ACI Payments Inc,
consented to the CFPB order without admitting or denying
responsibility.
    According to the CFPB, during a test of its electronic
payments platform in April 2021, ACI improperly used actual
consumer data, rather than dummy data, which illegally initiated
more than $2.3 billion in payments.
    At one bank, more than 60,000 accounts were debited more
than $330 million the following morning, with about 7,300
account balances reduced by more than $10,000.

 (Reporting by Douglas Gillison; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
 ((douglas.gillison@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging:
@douglasgillison))