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Wells Fargo previously admitted that employees opened around 2.1 million unauthorized bank accounts in customers' names. Now that number could rise to 3.5 million:
Nearly a year after Wells Fargo's fraudulent account scandal burst into public view, the bank said it had turned up more than a million additional accounts that customers may not have authorized.
The news set off a fresh wave of criticism from those frustrated by the bank's slow pace in coming clean about its misdeeds. "Every time we get one of these announcements, the pressure rises," said Nancy Bush, a banking industry analyst who runs NAB Research. "How many customers, and how many employees within Wells Fargo, are coming to the conclusion, 'I don't need to be associated with this'?"
The findings brought the number of potentially unauthorized accounts to 3.5 million — a nearly 70 percent increase over the bank's initial estimate.
Wells Fargo agreed last September to pay $185 million to settle three government lawsuits over the bank's creation of sham accounts. Thousands of employees, trying to meet aggressive sales goals, had created accounts in customers' names without their knowledge. Workers who met the bank's sales targets received bonuses — and those who did not risked losing their jobs. At the time, Wells Fargo said that 2.1 million suspect accounts had been opened from 2011 to mid-2015. But it also acknowledged at the time that the problems may have begun earlier, and said it would expand its review to include accounts opened from 2009 to 2016.
Also at NPR, Reuters, and Bloomberg.
Statement from Wells Fargo.
Previously: Wells Fargo Fined Over Unauthorized Accounts
Wells Fargo Likely Hurt Customers' Credit Scores; Labor Department Launches Review
(Score: 2) by mendax on Friday September 01 2017, @06:02AM (1 child)
It was in 2005 that I left Wells Fargo as a customer for all my accounts when I refinanced my mortgage with the local credit union. I got tired of being nickled and dimed by them by fees. I have never regretted the decision and I now realize that my dislike of Wells Fargo was perhaps based upon something based more on intuition of just how nasty an organization it really is.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 4, Informative) by iwoloschin on Friday September 01 2017, @11:06AM
I've tried to get them to sell my mortgage (they bought it from a local mortgage originator) for years, but they refuse to do so, even though at least once a quarter I send them a request to request my escrow account be cancelled since they cannot seem to manage it properly themselves. They've even admitted they don't even bother looking at the real estate tax bills, they just guestimate it out and fix it later. Supposedly they cannot cancel it because it's a VA loan, even though the VA has no restrictions on escrow accounts.
Unfortunately, it's a 3.25% 30 year loan, so refinancing is likely only going to cost me more money, and as long as I stay on top of the account it's easy to catch stupid problems. It's just frustrating that I'm doing their job and paying them for the privilege.