The San Francisco-based bank has refunded all fees incurred as a result of the fake accounts, which came from things like insufficient fund fees and overdraft charges that came from employees moving money into fake accounts.
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Wells Fargo fired 5,300 for improper sales push. When she retires at the end of the year she will be eligible for $124.6 million in stock, options, and restricted Wells Fargo shares, some of which haven’t vested yet, according to Fortune. The stock has fallen 6.8% over the last four sessions. Fortune reported, however, that Wells Fargo has not indicated an intention to ask for any part of the $125 million back.
Wells Fargo will cut product sales goals for retail bankers, days after the bank was fined $185 million for allegedly illegally opening unauthorized accounts for its customers.
Shrewsberry said the bank will roll out the new program and it will instead be focused on the “richness of the relationships, satisfaction of customer, not number of units of the product”.
The phantom accounts meant that some customers were charged for insufficient funds, according to the regulators.
A Wells Fargo spokeswoman declined to comment on Lew’s remarks.
Carrie Tolstedt, the head of the bank’s retail operations where the abuses are alleged to have occurred, stepped down in July.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a federal watchdog agency, said the bank imposed the goals on its staff because it “sought to distinguish itself in the marketplace as a leader in “cross-selling” banking products and services to its existing customers”. “We believe the changes we have made have strengthened Wells Fargo and will help ensure this behavior doesn’t happen in the future”.
On Friday, Wells Fargo sent an alert to some of its employees requesting that they temporarily suspend the practice of trying to sell customers other products – known as cross-selling – because of high call volumes.
8 settled allegations that it opened credit-card and deposit accounts for customers without their approval, while not admitting or denying wrongdoing. This strategy is common in banking industry, but Wells Fargo is considered particularly aggressive.
The investigation is being conducted by the US attorney’s offices for the Southern District of NY and the Northern District of California, these people said.
Wells Fargo, the largest bank in SC, has always been known for its aggressive sales goals, But in an industry plagued with questionable action during the mortgage bubble and financial crisis, it was also regarded as a well-run, tightly managed firm that did not get into the poisonous behavior of its Wall Street counterparts.
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The official, who characterized the action as a preliminary review to determine if there is a criminal or civil case to pursue, spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter has not been publicly disclosed.
