Regulators have paid particular attention to auto loans.
USAA Bank is a subsidiary of USAA in San Antonio.
Stephen Santana | MySAFederal savings bank USAA fell out of favor with federal regulators after a critical look at the bank’s auto lending practices in San Antonio revealed irregularities. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which regulates USAA Bank, found that the bank did not deliver “promised interest rate discounts on auto loans,” the San Antonio Express-News reported on Wednesday, Jan. 11.
The OCC identified a total of 6,477 violations with the Federal Trade Commission, resulting in USAA Bank’s rating under the Community Reinvestment Act being downgraded from “satisfactory” to “needs improvement”. The 1997 law requires regulators to look at a bank’s records to see if it meets the needs of its community, which includes middle- and low-income neighborhoods.
USAA Bank is a division of the larger insurance and financial company USAA, which serves active and retired military personnel and their families. MySA has reached out to USAA Bank for comment.
“Our overall rating has been downgraded due to regulatory concerns that have been addressed that were related to a product that USAA discontinued in 2020,” USAA Bank said in a statement to Express News.
The evaluation was completed in March 2022 and the statement did not say which product was discontinued. USAA Bank also received a Needs Improvement rating from the OCC in 2019.
However, USAA Bank ranked high on American Banker’s 2022 Banking Reputation List, which conducted a customer survey to build its ranking.
