HSBC has been ordered to pay the US Treasury $35 million for unfair and deceptive billing practices and ordered to pay restitution to its victims.

The OCC says that the bank’s billing practices broke section 5 Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 USC §45(a)(1), which prohibits unfair and deceptive acts or practices. The $35 million civil money penalty was calculated according to the breadth and duration of the offences and the financial harm that they caused customers.

Customers were unfairly billed for CreditKeeper, a credit-monitoring product marketed and sold by the bank, its affiliate HSBC Bank Nevada, N.A., Las Vegas, Nevada, and their vendors. The restitution will benefit customers who enrolled in and paid for that product between January 2004 and May 2012, but did not receive the full benefit of the product. It will include the full amount paid for this product, plus any associated over-limit fees, finance-related charges, and interest.

The OCC order also requires the bank to ensure compliance with the FTC Act, improve the governance of vendors that provided the bank with add-on consumer products, develop a risk management programme for add-on consumer products that it or its vendors has marketed or sold, or is marketing or selling, and develop a consumer compliance internal audit programme for add-on consumer products.