San Antonio’s USAA Bank under fire from former employee

A former USAA Federal Savings Bank employee has gone public with allegations that the bank “ripped off” customers and committed other financial crimes, charges the San Antonio institution calls “baseless.” Lenn A. Ferrer, a former federal prosecutor and Navy lawyer who worked in USAA Bank’s compliance department from 2014 until he was fired in March 2020, says the bank violated laws meant to protect military members against certain lending practices. Ferrer said he recently sent the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau a whisteblower complaint outlining his allegations, adding that he believed it should be forwarded to the Department of Justice for potential criminal prosecution. “I am not going to stop until I get all of these matters referred to DOJ,” Ferrer told the Express-News.

USAA officials forcefully disputed Ferrer’s allegations, which were first reported by Compliance Week, a publication for regulatory compliance officers. “Frankly, it’s offensive to USAA employees because we really take our obligations seriously to live by our values,” said Kate Gallivan, head of regulatory relations and senior vice president. “Those values are service, loyalty, honesty and integrity. When you work here, serving members is really — it’s at the center of everything we do.” USAA said it placed Ferrer on administrative leave in February 2020 “for inappropriate and threatening comments made to co-workers, including reference to firearms,” and dismissed him about two weeks later. Ferrer asserted that the company “manufactured cause to fire me” because he is a whistleblower. The retail bank offers credit cards, consumer loans, residential mortgages, home equity loans and trust services. It is an arm of USAA, the giant insurance and financial services comany, which has about 13 million customers — members of the military, veterans and their families. USAA has no affiliation with the U.S. military.