Federal Agencies Release Inflation-Adjusted Civil Penalty Increases

Multiple federal agencies, including the OCC, FTC, CFPB, NCUA, SEC, the VA, and FDIC recently published in the Federal Register their annual inflationary increases to the maximum civil monetary penalty amounts, as mandated by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015.  The adjusted penalty amounts will be imposed on any violation that occurred after November 2, 2015.

The formula for these annual inflationary increases uses the percentage change between the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers from October 2022 through October 2023 (OMB determined this to be 1.03241 for this inflationary adjustment), and multiplies that by the 2023 penalty amount to get the adjusted penalty amount, which is then rounded to the nearest dollar.  The adjusted penalties were published in the Federal Register by January 15, 2024.

No notice and comment period is required for these Federal Register notices and rules, so the adjustments for the agencies named above became effective shortly after being published, and all were effective by January 15, 2024, at the latest.