WASHINGTON - Bank of America Corp, the second largest US bank, has been fined $30 million after a financial regulator found numerous violations in the lending rules related to the accounts of thousands of military service members.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) Friday assessed a $30 million civil money penalty against Bank of America, National Association, and ordered remediation to approximately 73,000 affected customer accounts.

The penalty has been levied against the bank for "violations of law and unsafe or unsound practices in connection with the bank's non-home loan compliance with the Service members Civil Relief Act (SCRA), and unsafe or unsound practices in connection with non-home debt collection litigation practices", OCC said in a statement..

The improper practices by Bank of America (BofA) allegedly occurred from January 2006 to the present.

The enforcement action by OCC, which regulates and supervises all national banks, is intended to correct deficiencies in the bank's practices and procedures related to its SCRA-compliance program and to address the preparation and notarization of affidavits and other sworn documents used in the bank's debt collection litigation.

The OCC's enforcement action also directed the bank to improve its SCRA-compliance policies and procedures for determining whether military personnel are eligible for requested SCRA-related benefits, for ensuring that the bank calculates the SCRA benefits correctly.

Under the US law military personnel are shielded from being sued while in the service and for up to a year after active duty. Such protections date back to the Civil War.

The bank has also been directed to verify the military service status of service members prior to seeking or obtaining default judgments on non-home loans.

The enforcement action also directed the bank to improve its enterprise-wide compliance risk management program.

The order covers collections litigation for a small percentage of credit card and deposit overdraft customers who defaulted on their account, and also covers SCRA account servicing, according to BofA.

The issues were discovered during reviews that began in 2011.

Earlier this year after regulators warned big banks to adopt more ethical internal cultures, BofA has shifted its compliance group to risk oversight group from the legal department.

"We have taken significant steps over the last several years, and will take further steps now, to ensure we have the right controls and processes in place to meet and exceed what is required by law and what our customers deserve and expect," said Andrew Plepler, Bank of America Global Corporate Social Responsibility and Consumer Policy Executive.

In 2013, JPMorgan Chase and Co. also faced a similar order to clean up its debt-collection practices.