Civil Money Penalties: Revised Policies and Procedures Manual for Civil Money Penalties

November 29, 2022 / Source: OCC

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) today released a revised Policies and Procedures Manual (PPM) for assessing civil money penalties (CMP), which the agency will begin using on January 1, 2023. This version of PPM 5000-7, “Civil Money Penalties,” replaces the November 13, 2018, version conveyed by OCC Bulletin 2018-41, “OCC Enforcement Actions: OCC Enforcement Action Policies and Procedures Manuals.”

Note for Community Banks

This bulletin applies to community banks.¹

Highlights

PPM 5000-7 includes revisions to the CMP matrix for institutions, including

• revised mitigating factors of (1) self-identification, (2) remediation or corrective action, and (3) restitution.
• increased scoring weight of mitigating factors.
• revised table titled “Suggested Action Based on Total Matrix Score and Total Assets of Bank.”

PPM 5000-7 adds examiner guidance related to factoring unquantifiable public harm (including redlining cases) and the use of business restrictions or other injunctive relief in conjunction with a CMP.

The CMP matrix is a tool to guide the OCC’s decision making in assessing CMPs in specific cases, but it does not reduce supervisory decision making to a mathematical process. The CMP matrix is not a substitute for sound supervisory judgment, and the OCC may depart from the CMP matrix suggestions when appropriate.

Background

The OCC first implemented a CMP matrix for institutions via the similarly titled CMP PPM dated February 26, 2016. Since then, the agency has found that the suggested action table accompanying the matrix did not allow for sufficient differentiation among varying levels of misconduct or by institution size. Further, the mitigating factors in the CMP matrix issued under OCC Bulletin 2018-41 did not give banks a sufficiently strong incentive to fully address underlying deficiencies.

Further Information

Please contact the OCC’s Enforcement group at (202) 649-6200 or Specialty Supervision Division at (202) 649-6450.

Beverly Cole
Senior Deputy Comptroller for Midsize and Community Bank Supervision

Grovetta N. Gardineer
Senior Deputy Comptroller for Bank Supervision Policy

Greg J. Coleman
Senior Deputy Comptroller for Large Bank Supervision

Benjamin W. McDonough
Senior Deputy Comptroller and Chief Counsel

Related Link

• PPM 5000-7, “Civil Money Penalties,” dated January 1, 2023 (PDF)