Bank of America will pay a $12 million penalty for allegedly reporting false mortgage lending data to the federal government, under a settlement reached with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Bank of America loan officers failed to ask applicants certain demographic questions like race, ethnicity, and sex, as required by the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HDMA). Those loan officers then reported the applicants failed to respond, the CFPB said Tuesday in a press release. Bank of America allegedly used that information to fulfill its HDMA reporting requirements.

During a three-month period in 2020, 113 Bank of America loan officers reported on 100 percent of the mortgage applications they processed that applicants had chosen not to provide the demographic information, according to the CFPB’s consent order. Another 290 loan officers were later found to have recorded that 100 percent of their applicants had chosen not to provide the information in applications they took over a three-month period within the years 2016-21.