Bank of America will pay a $12 million penalty for submitting false mortgage lending information to the government, violating a federal law that lenders have routinely followed for decades, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said on Tuesday.

The payment resolves charges that for at least four years, hundreds of loan officers at the second-largest U.S. bank failed to ask mortgage applicants various demographic questions, and then falsely reported that the applicants chose not to respond.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York)