BCFP Proposes to Limit Inflation Adjustment Violation Date

The BCFP is proposing a regulatory amendment to specify that the 2019 inflation adjustment for civil money penalties will only apply for civil money penalties assessed after January 15, 2019, based on violations that occurred on or after November 2, 2015.

Under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (Inflation Adjustments Act), agency heads are permitted to assess inflation adjusted civil money penalties for violations that predate the statute.  In June 2016, the BCFP published an interim final rule creating 12 CFR Part 1083, which implements the Inflation Adjustments Act, which provided that the 2016 adjustments were applied to civil penalties assessed after July 14, 2016, regardless of when the violation occurred. The new BCFP proposal would amend the regulation, based on guidance from the Office of Management and Budget, to provide that the adjusted civil money penalties (which have not yet been issued) will only apply to violations occurring on or after November 2, 2015.

Comments are open through November 14, 2018.

The proposed rule can be found here.