Bank of America agrees to settle customers’ suit over alleged unauthorized account openings

Bank of America has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by customers who alleged the bank opened financial accounts in their names without their knowledge or authorization, according to a report published by American Banker.

The case was filed in 2023 by a group of plaintiffs who claimed Bank of America created accounts on their behalf despite not approving the account openings. The dispute persisted for several years, and the latest development is the bank’s agreement to resolve the matter through a settlement.

Because the report focuses on the existence of the settlement agreement rather than the full legal terms, details that often accompany these resolutions, such as the settlement amount, the scope of who qualifies for payments, and any admission or denial of wrongdoing, were not described in the available account.

The allegation at the center of the lawsuit, unauthorized account opening, is a recurring theme in disputes involving banks and customers. In such cases, plaintiffs typically argue that accounts were created or maintained without proper consent, leading to downstream harms such as confusion over account activity, potential impacts on credit or identity-linked records, and added administrative burdens to correct records.

Bank of America, like other large financial institutions, operates with processes intended to verify customers and obtain authorization before opening accounts. Those controls are part of broader compliance and risk-management frameworks that regulators expect banks to maintain, including customer identification and appropriate authorization checks.