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

ACI Worldwide

27/06/2023 15:20

(Adds ACI comment)
       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 serviced 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 consented to the CFPB order without admitting
or denying responsibility.
    In a statement, the company said the erroneous transactions
had occurred after it took control of a newly acquired
electronic payments platform and that consumer funds and data
were safe at all times. A consumer class action over the
incident had been settled last month, it said.
    According to the CFPB, during a test of the 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))