Wells Fargo sacked 5,300 employees for ripping off customers

The Brisbane Times reports:

Wells Fargo will pay $US185 million ($240 million) to resolve claims that bank employees opened deposit and credit-card accounts without customers’ approval to satisfy sales goals and earn financial rewards, US regulators said.

The lender opened more than 2 million accounts that consumers may not have known about, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said in a statement on Thursday. Wells Fargo, which fired 5300 employees over the improper sales practices, agreed to pay a $US100 million fine to the CFPB, $US35 million to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and $US50 million to the Los Angeles city attorney to settle the matter. The San Francisco-based bank also will compensate customers who incurred fees or charges, the agencies said.

5,300 employees were sacked for doing this! Did they have any honest employees? They set upo two million accounts for customers that were not requested!

“Wells Fargo employees secretly opened unauthorised accounts to hit sales targets and receive bonuses,” CFPB director Richard Cordray said in his agency’s statement. “Because of the severity of these violations, Wells Fargo is paying the largest penalty the CFPB has ever imposed.”

The bank agreed to resolve the allegations without admitting or denying the agencies’ accusations, and said in a statement that it had set aside $US5 million for customer remediation.

“We regret and take responsibility for any instances where customers may have received a product that they did not request,” Wells Fargo said in its statement.

If I was in the US, that would be one bank I would never bank with.