Metro

‘Abu$ive’ banks held to account

Big banks are the biggest abusers of New York financial customers — and they’re being forced to reimburse thousands of people.

That’s according to a Post analysis of complaints filed with a new federal-fraud squad, which puts Bank of America at the top of the offender list.

The bank had to fork over 882 refunds to city customers who griped to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau since the agency began fielding complaints in 2011.

No. 2 was JPMorgan Chase, which gave out 858 refunds, and then Citbank, which made 666 payments, the analysis revealed.

Those three banks are among the largest in the city.

The data show that 5,553 New Yorkers got some kind of “monetary relief” after alleging unfair treatment regarding their credit cards, mortgages, bank accounts and student and car loans.

Of those settlements, 2,422 related to home loans, 1,498 involved credit cards and 1,245 were about bank accounts or services.This after the subprime mortgage crisis crippled the economy in 2008, spurring the creation of the agency amid calls for stricter oversight of lending institutions

Mortgage abuse is by far the No. 1 beef nationwide, making up 49 percent of the 156,000 complaints sent in over the last two years.

And 61 percent of those were “problems when unable to pay,” the CFPB said.

But refunds weren’t quite enough to buy new digs: the median payout on mortgage complaints nationwide was just $425.

The agency has lowered the boom on bad behavior, ordering Capital One to pay $140 million to customers and $25 million in fines for deceptive marketing.

It also socked American Express for $85 million for “illegal card practices” and joined forces with the FDIC in forcing Discover to pay $200 million in customer refunds and a $14 million civil fine for misleading sales and marketing pitches.

“Everyone in the country uses financial services, and from time to time you’re going to have issues,” said Scott Pluta, the CFPB chief of staff.

“You go to the company and they may or may not help you. If not, you’re kind of stuck.” “It gives us a window into the marketplace,” he said.

He said the agency, which has about 140 staff members handling complaints, has intervened in many individual cases. Other times, the mere filing of a complaint forces a company to do the right thing.

“The first step in the process is getting the consumer and company in the same room and we are there, ” he said.

He said the growing complaint database also helps the feds uncover wider industry problems, including predatory financial services or products and repeated abuse by certain companies.

brad.hamilton@nypost.com