Mastercard and UniRush have been ordered by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to pay $13 million over a technology breakdown in 2015 which left tens of thousands of customers unable to access their money.
In October 2015, UniRush was slated to move to Mastercard as the payments processor for its RushCard prepaid card. But, despite more than a year of planning, the switch led to "preventable technological breakdowns," says the CFPB.
Between them, the two firms left customers unable to access their own money and with inaccurate account information. The CFPB received more than 800 complaints about the "devastating impact" the outage had on users' personal finances.
The companies have been ordered to pay around $10 million in restitution to tens of thousands of harmed consumers, create a plan to prevent future problems, and pay a $3 million civil penalty to the CFPB.
UniRush - which was co-founded by Def Jam mogul Russell Simmons and this week agreed a $167 million deal to be bought by Green Dot - has already reached a $19 million settlement with affected cardholders.