American Express National Bank agreed to pay a $15 million penalty levied by the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for alleged oversight failings regarding a third-party affiliate and its efforts to retain small business customers.
American Express (Amex) failed to ensure it had appropriate call monitoring controls and mechanisms to document and track customer complaints in connection to its unnamed third-party affiliate, the OCC said in a press release Tuesday.
The details: The third-party affiliate was responsible for retaining small business customers. Between 2015 and 2017, Amex had inadequate oversight of the affiliate, the OCC alleged in its consent order, including poor governance, inadequate call monitoring, documentation processes, and handling of customer complaints.
The bank also failed to maintain and produce records related to customer retention efforts in response to OCC requests and in compliance with customer identification regulations, the order stated.
Company response: “We have reached a settlement with the OCC to resolve its previously disclosed review of historical sales practices to certain U.S. small business card customers which occurred between 2015 and 2017,” an Amex spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
“We had fully reserved for the penalty in a prior period. The matters covered by the settlement have been fully addressed, including updating card sales policies, enhancing training for sales employees, and providing customer remediation as appropriate.”
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