Regulator Imposes $4.25M Penalty on RBC for Inaccurate Credit Card Claims

People walk past the Royal Bank Tower in Montreal on June 19, 2025. The Canadian Press/Christopher Katsarov

The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has been fined $4.25 million by a government regulator for issuing monthly credit card statements to certain customers that included incorrect information.

The violation relates to RBC’s procedure for deactivating and transferring customers’ credit card accounts to new accounts following reports of fraud for the 23 years between 2001 and 2024, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) said in a summary of proceedings document.

RBC failed to transfer certain credits from deactivated accounts to new accounts, the agency said. As a result, certain customers received statements with inaccurate information about amounts charged or credited, including interest, as well as the dates those amounts were posted to accounts, the government agency said.

A total of 227,947 accounts were financially affected. RBC has refunded more than $22.4 million. The bank also opted to make a charitable donation of $299,000 in recognition of the customers who were unable to receive refunds because they couldn’t be identified.

“The root cause of the violation was inadequate and ineffective control and oversight procedures and operational challenges with processes and proper reporting,” the summary said. “The $4.25M penalty reflects, among other criteria, the significant harm to customers.”

The FCAC described accurate disclosure as a “foundational element of the consumer protection provisions of the Bank Act.”

RBC paid the fine on April 17 after receiving a notice of violation from the agency on March 18.

An RBC spokesperson told The Epoch Times that the bank “self-reported” the matter to the FCAC, and has “cooperated fully with the regulator throughout this process.”

“We hold ourselves to the highest standards and take our regulatory obligations seriously,” he said in an emailed statement. “Where areas for improvement are identified, we act to address them.”

The fine marks the second time the financial watchdog has taken enforcement action against a Canadian bank within a one-year period.

The FCAC imposed a penalty of $4 million on the Bank of Montreal last March for breaching consumer provisions outlined in the Bank Act.

The infractions were associated with incorrect charges for monthly plan fees that were supposed to be waived or discounted for some personal deposit accounts between 2010 and 2024, the agency said in a summary of proceeding from last spring.

BMO also did not sufficiently disclose the timeline for the initiation of the monthly plan fees between 2022 and 2024, the summary said.

A total of 101,091 customers were financially affected in the BMO case, the regulator said. The bank refunded more than $3 million and provided interest compensation to those impacted. It also contributed more than $600,000 on behalf of customers who could not be located.