July 9 (Reuters) - Fifth Third Bancorp ( FITB ) will pay

$20 million in civil fines and offer redress to 35,000 harmed

consumers to settle U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

charges it opened unauthorized accounts and illegally

repossessed their cars.

The Cincinnati-based lender, which has about $215

billion of assets and 1,070 branches mainly in Midwestern and

Southeastern U.S. states, did not admit or deny wrongdoing in

agreeing to the two settlements announced by the CFPB on

Tuesday.

Fifth Third will pay a $15 million fine and refund fees

and costs to customers with fake accounts between 2010 and 2016.

It was also banned from setting sales quotas that give

employees incentives to open the accounts, through a

"cross-selling" strategy that also led to sanctions for other

banks including Wells Fargo ( WFC ).

Fifth Third will separately pay a $5 million fine and

offer compensation to borrowers it forced to obtain car

insurance that duplicated coverage they already had, or had

their vehicles repossessed if they failed to comply.

The regulator said that between 2011 and 2019, Fifth

Third "force-placed" or required unnecessary insurance more than

37,000 times, collected more than $12.7 million of "worthless"

fees, and improperly repossessed nearly 1,000 vehicles.

One victim was an insurance agent who said Fifth Third

assured him in 2016 that "everything is correct and that I

actually do not owe anything," shortly before he woke up one

morning to find his car missing.

The fake accounts settlement requires a judge's

approval, and would resolve a CFPB

lawsuit

filed in March 2020.

"We are ordering the senior executives and board of

directors at Fifth Third to clean up these broken business

practices or else face further consequences," CFPB Director

Rohit Chopra said in a statement.

Susan Zaunbrecher, Fifth Third's chief legal officer,

said in a statement: "We have already taken significant action

to address these legacy matters, including identifying issues

and taking the initiative to set things right."