Wells Fargo Review Finds 1.4 Million More Suspect Accounts

Wells Fargo Review Finds 1.4 Million More Suspect Accounts
Wells Fargo said on Thursday that an internal review of its potentially fraudulent bank accounts had uncovered
a total of 3.5 million such accounts, some 1.4 million more than it had previously estimated.
“We apologize to everyone who was harmed.”
The bank’s review, which went back to the beginning of 2009, focused on retail bank accounts,
and did not expand into other areas in which the bank has been accused of wrongdoing, including improperly withholding refunds due to some car loan customers and charging some customers for auto insurance that they did not need.
The bank has also been accused of handing mortgages improperly by making unauthorized changes to borrowers in bankruptcy (which it has denied) and charging customers fees to extend applications
that it delayed (an issue the bank said it is looking into).
Wells Fargo touched off a scandal last September when it agreed to pay $185 million to settle three government
lawsuits over the bank’s creation of potentially millions of unauthorized customer accounts.
“We are working hard to ensure this never happens again
and to build a better bank for the future,” Timothy J. Sloan, Wells Fargo’s chief executive, said in a written statement announcing the review’s results.
Wells Fargo said that it had found 528,000 cases in which customers may have been signed up without their knowledge or consent,
and will refund $910,000 to customers who incurred fees or charges.