NPR reports:
This month federal regulators fined Wells Fargo $185 million for opening checking and credit card accounts on behalf of customers who had no idea that was happening. The bank has promised to try to make restitution. [...] In some cases, Wells Fargo employees would transfer funds into the new accounts from one of the customer's existing accounts. That could result in late fees or fines for insufficient funds. Ira Rheingold, executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates, says that would have had a direct impact on someone's credit score. "You may not have qualified for a mortgage or you might have been dinged by getting charged a little higher interest rate because of what was reported wrongly on your credit report," he says. But the potential impact goes beyond the customer's finances. These days, credit scores are routinely checked by potential landlords, by employers — even by cellphone companies. Wu says someone who has racked up too many overdraft fees because of unauthorized accounts may have trouble getting another checking account.
The U.S. Labor Department will launch a review of complaints related to Wells Fargo:
U.S. Labor Department Secretary Thomas Perez on Monday pledged to conduct a "top-to-bottom" review of all cases, complaints and other alleged violations that the department has received concerning Wells Fargo in recent years. Perez's announcement, outlined in a Sept. 26 letter to Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, comes after Warren and other Democrats asked the Labor Department last week to launch a probe into possible wage and working-hour law violations involving Wells Fargo tellers and sales representatives who may have stayed late to meet sales quotas.
Previously:
Wells Fargo Fined Over Unauthorized Accounts.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday September 27 2016, @05:35PM
Not holding my breath, but maybe for once we can see someone useful come out of the hill.
Won't happen. They're going to get off easily when Hillary takes office, because these guys are her good buddies. It'll be exactly like what happened with the Microsoft antitrust trial when GWB took office, and the DOJ dropped the case.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday September 27 2016, @06:02PM
Won't happen. They're going to get off easily when Hillary takes office, because these guys are her good buddies.
I don't think she considers the Wells Farfgo PAC, that donates 66% of it's money to Republicans, [opensecrets.org] to be good friends.