The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has announced its annual increase in the size of civil money penalties it is allowed to assess for violations of certain federal statutes.
Similar to 2018, fines for violations of the Consumer Financial Protection Act, the Truth in Lending Act, the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, and the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act will increase by 2% across the board.
For a Tier 1 violation of the CFPA, the maximum amount that the CFPB can fine an individual or company will rise to $5,781 from $5,639. For a Tier 2 violation, the maximum fine increases to $28,906 from $28,195, and for a Tier 3 violation, the maximum fine is now $1,156,242, up from $1,127,799 a year ago.
The increases will be made final once the notice is published in the Federal Register.
Federal regulators are allowed to increase the size of their fines annually, based on a cost-of-living adjustment. For 2019, that adjustment is 1.02522 higher than the amounts from last year. The cost-of-living adjustment is provided by the White House Office of Management & Budget.
