{"id":22136,"date":"2024-07-11T16:46:33","date_gmt":"2024-07-11T16:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/?p=783409"},"modified":"2024-07-11T16:46:33","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T16:46:33","slug":"fifth-third-bank-to-pay-5m-fine-for-illegally-forcing-car-insurance-onto-borrowers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2024\/07\/11\/fifth-third-bank-to-pay-5m-fine-for-illegally-forcing-car-insurance-onto-borrowers\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifth Third Bank to Pay $5M Fine for Illegally Forcing Car Insurance Onto Borrowers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/img\/social\/opengraph\/ij-social-default-1200x630.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<ul class=\"nav nav-tabs tabs tabs-entry\">\n<li class=\"active\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/midwest\/2024\/07\/11\/783409.htm\">Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/midwest\/2024\/07\/11\/783409.htm?comments\" rel=\"nofollow\">0 Comments<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"article-content clearfix\">\n<p>Fifth Third Bank agreed this week to pay a $5 million fine for illegally forcing vehicle insurance onto borrowers who had coverage. Fifth Third also agreed to pay a $15 million fine for illegal sales practices.<\/p>\n<p>The Cincinnati, Ohio-based bank demanded borrowers pay for coverage they did not need or else face delinquency, additional fees, and repossessions, according to a statement from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).<\/p>\n<div class=\"bzn bzn-sized bzn-intext\">\n<ins data-revive-zoneid=\"79\" data-revive-topics=\"auto\" data-revive-companies=\"53\" data-revive-block=\"1\" data-revive-id=\"36eb7c2bd3daa932a43cc2a8ffbed3a9\"><\/ins> <\/div>\n<p>The CFPB estimates that Fifth Third\u2019s actions affected 35,000 harmed consumers, including about 1,000 who had their cars repossessed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile consumers received coverage with no value, Fifth Third Bank profited,\u201d the agency said.<\/p>\n<p>The CFPB found that in more than 37,000 instances, Fifth Third illegally charged fees that provided no value at all, and in some cases, a policy was duplicative of coverage borrowers already had on their vehicles.<\/p>\n<p>An investigation by the CFPB found that some cases involved the consumer obtaining the requisite coverage within 30 days of lapse and did not have the force-placed policy canceled in its entirety. Borrowers paid over $12.7 million in illegal, worthless fees.<\/p>\n<p>When the unnecessary or duplicative coverage was cancelled, borrowers were entitled to a refund of the illegally charged fees. Instead of refunding the money directly to borrowers, Fifth Third applied the refunds to consumers\u2019 outstanding loan balances. Fifth Third also reinsured its coverage program and made millions by getting paid fees that far exceeded any claim losses under the program, the CFPB found.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday\u2019s settlement concludes both the sales practices litigation with the CFPB, and its separate investigation into certain auto finance servicing activities related to a collateral protection insurance program that the Bank shut down in 2019 before the CFPB began its investigation,\u201d said Susan Zaunbrecher, chief legal officer of Fifth Third.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagtag\"> <span class=\"tagtag\">Topics<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/auto\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Auto<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll\" data-post=\"783409\">\n<div class=\"article-poll-vote\">\n<p>Was this article valuable?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-feedback voted-no\">\n<form class=\"feedback-form\">\n<p>Thank you! 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Please tell us what you liked about it.<\/p>\n<p> <textarea placeholder=\"Enter your feedback...\"><\/textarea> <button type=\"submit\" class=\"submit\" disabled>Submit<\/button> <button class=\"cancel\">No Thanks<\/button> <\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-more-articles\">\n<p class=\"thank-you-text\">Here are more articles you may enjoy.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"subscribe-banner subscribe-banner-in-content-2\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h4>Interested in <em>Auto<\/em>?<\/h4>\n<p>Get automatic alerts for this topic.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Article 0 Comments Fifth Third Bank agreed this week to pay a $5 million fine for illegally forcing vehicle insurance onto borrowers who had coverage. Fifth Third also agreed to pay a $15 million&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[919,920,921,13,1],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/fifth-third-bank-to-pay-5m-fine-for-illegally-forcing-car-insurance-onto-borrowers.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}