Civil Penalty Inflation Adjustments

The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau) is amending its rule that specifies the time period for which adjusted civil penalty amounts would be applied to conduct within its jurisdiction and is also adjusting specific civil penalty amounts in that rule to account for inflation. On June 14, 2016, the Bureau issued an interim final rule (IFR) to implement the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended by the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 and further amended by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (Inflation Adjustment Act). On October 12, 2018, the Bureau sought notice and comment on a proposed amendment to the IFR to specify that the adjusted civil penalties only apply to assessments whose associated violations occurred on, or after, November 2, 2015 (the date the 2015 Inflation Adjustment Act amendments were signed into law). This rule finalizes the IFR and proposed amendment; it also adjusts for inflation the maximum amount of each civil penalty within the Bureau’s jurisdiction.