OCC sets sights on big banks in updated penalty guidance

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC) new policies and procedures for assessing civil money penalties (CMP) establishes fines as high as $400 million for misconduct—more than double the highest total in previous guidance—based on the size of the institution and the degree of severity of the violations.

The OCC’s new CMP guidance, released Tuesday, provides agency supervisors with an updated matrix that significantly increases potential fines for offending institutions. In the 2018 CMP guidance, penalties were largely capped at $150 million for any institution with assets over $100 billion.

The new CMP guidance sets significantly higher penalties for large banks by creating two new categories: institutions with assets from $500 billion to $1 trillion and those with $1 trillion or more in assets.