CHARLOTTE, N.C.–Wells Fargo is reporting it has uncovered nearly twice as many potentially unauthorized consumer and small-business accounts than has been believed following an independent investigation into a scandal that to date has led to more than $185-million in fines.
Wells Fargo CEO Timothy Sloan said the review of accounts by an independent firm could reveal a “significant increase" in the number of accounts involved in the scandal. The bank said the review of 165 million retail accounts opened from January 2009-through September 2016 by its employees, who were under extreme pressure from management to meet aggressive sales targets, identified 3.5 million as potentially unauthorized. Until the latest revelations, the figure had been estimated at 2.1 bogus accounts.
During a conference call, Sloan said Wells Fargo is now focused on remediation for customers, and added that in the process of conducting its review it cast a wide net and that some of the accounts identified may have been opened legitimately.
"To rebuild trust and to build a better Wells Fargo, our first priority is to make things right for our customers, and the completion of this expanded third-party analysis is an important milestone," Sloan said.
According to Wells Fargo, the investigation was covered by a third-party firm, which identified 2.55 million potentially unauthorized accounts from the original four-and-a-half-year time frame plus another 981,000 accounts in the expanded, eight-year period.