SAN FRANCISCO–The fake-account-opening scam that led to more than $185 million in fines against Wells Fargo and from which it has yet to recover may be even larger than believed.
In a regulatory filing, Wells Fargo said that its review of potentially unauthorized accounts could reveal a “significant increase” in the number of accounts involved, up from the 2.1 million that it previously estimated. Wells Fargo said it had expanded its investigation to add three years to its review period, which covered accounts opened from 2011 to mid-2015, according to The New York Times.
And that’s not all. Complicating matters further, Wells Fargo also said it is being investigated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over whether any of its customers were harmed by the bank’s practice of freezing, and in some instances closing, bank accounts suspected of being affected by fraudulent activity.
Wells Fargo’s president, Timothy J. Sloan, said the bank continues its work probing what took place over the past decade, when more than 5,000 employees were fired for opening the bogus accounts as they attempted to meet aggressive cross-sales targets set for them.
“To regain the trust we have lost, we must continue to be transparent with all our stakeholders and go beyond what has been asked of us by our regulators,” Sloan was quoted by The New York Times as saying. “Today’s regulatory filing reminds us of this, because it includes evidence of much of that work, particularly as we have identified problems that we have committed to fix.”
As CUToday.info reported here, the revelations follow news last week that Wells Fargo also charged more than 800,000 auto loan customers for insurance products they did not need, causing up to 20,000 to lose their cars due to repossession as a result of increased costs from the insurance-related fees.
The bank further announced last week that it will pay $108 million in federal fines to settle an investigation into claims that it charged military veterans illegal fees to refinance their mortgages, costing taxpayers money when those government-guaranteed mortgages defaulted.