SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) – Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum joined 50 state attorneys general Tuesday in announcing a $20 million settlement with payment processor ACI Worldwide. Oregon will receive nearly $200,000 from the settlement, which resolves a 2021 testing error that led to $2.3 billion in unauthorized mortgage payments being processed.
Nationstar Mortgage, known publicly as Mr. Cooper, introduced ACI’s Speedpay product to its customers so they could schedule and pay their monthly mortgage payments electronically through the Automated Clearing House system.
Testing of their system led to unauthorized withdrawals from the accounts of hundreds of thousands of mortgage holders. The error affected 4,888 consumer accounts in Oregon.
“Our investigation showed that significant flaws in ACI’s privacy and data security procedures and technical infrastructure related to the Speedpay platform were responsible for this devastating incident. ACI must do better by placing a higher value on the privacy of its customers’ data,” said AG Rosenblum.
All affected consumers have had or will be fully restored through other means. Oregonians affected by the ACI testing error may also wish to file claim forms in connection with the class action settlement and must do so by November 13, 2023. More information about the class action settlement is available at https://achloanpaylitigation.com/.
While ACI took corrective steps to reduce the impact of the testing error, in some cases consumers were unable to access the funds in question and had to incur overdraft or insufficient funds fees. In addition to the financial settlement with states and territories, today’s settlement requires ACI to take steps to avoid any future incidents, including requiring ACI to use artificially generated data instead of real consumer data when testing systems or software; and requiring ACI to separate any testing or development work from its consumer payment systems.
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