According to that complaint, Wells Fargo employees pushed checking account customers into savings, credit and online accounts that could generate fees.
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The Wells Fargo Bank, N.A was ordered to pay $185 million in fines and penalties by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau after the bank was accused of secretly opening unauthorized deposit and credit card accounts.
Los Angeles first filed a lawsuit against the bank in May 2015.
Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer called the bank’s behavior “outrageous” and a “major breach of trust”.
The company says it fired 5,300 employees over the last few years for these kinds of practices, reports CNN Money.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said employees funded the deposit accounts by transferring funds from existing accounts.
Customers, the bank said, have already received refunds for various charges, overdraft fees, annual fees or finance and interest charges they may have unknowingly incurred on the unauthorized accounts.
In a message to employees, Wells Fargo said “when we make mistakes, we are open about it, we take responsibility and we take action”.
Wells said it has refunded $2.6 million to affected customers for monthly maintenance fees, insufficient fund fees, overdraft charges and other fees paid because of the creation of the unauthorized accounts.
The bank has 40 million retail customers.
An employee at the Wheeling office said no employees or customers there were impacted.
Thousands of employees at Wells Fargo were involved in opening accounts and moving funds that resulted in customers getting charged fees for services they didn’t seek.
As of 2015, Wells Fargo is the second-largest banking institution in New Jersey, behind Bank of America, with an 11.57 percent deposit market share and almost 300 offices, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
These Wells Fargo workers also decided in their infinite wisdom to create fake email accounts and PIN numbers to sign customers up for new accounts.
As Fusion reported, former Wells Fargo employee Rita Murillo told the Los Angeles Times in 2013, “We were constantly told we would end up working for McDonald’s”.
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Wells Fargo has the third largest deposit market share in Alabama with 9.76 percent of all deposits, according to data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, behind only Regions Bank and Compass Bank. Berkshire Hathaway investment firm is the largest shareholder in Wells Fargo.
