Wells Fargo Increases Fake Account Class Action Settlement to $142 million

$32 million addition covers accounts fraudulently opened as far back as 2002

Last month, Wells Fargo announced that it agreed to a $110 million settlement in a class action lawsuit brought on behalf of the bank’s customers who had a fake account opened in their name.

The settlement came as part of the fallout from the bank’s fake account scandal, which involved more than 5,000 of the bank’s former employees opening up as many as 2 million potentially unauthorized accounts to get sales bonuses and led to a $185 million fine from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the city and county of Los Angeles.

The $110 million settlement covered anyone who had an account opened in their name without their consent, enrolled them in a product or service without consent, or submitted an application for a product or service in their name without consent stretching back to Jan. 1, 2009, through the date the settlement is finalized.

But Wells Fargo announced Friday that it is expanding both the size of the settlement and the time period the settlement covers by an additional seven years.

According to an announcement from Wells Fargo, the settlement is being expanded by $32 million to $142 million, and now covers anyone who had a fake account opened in their name all the way back to 2002.

The bank said in its announcement that the settlement now covers “any customers who were impacted by sales practice issues as early as May 2002.”

In its announcement, the bank said that the expansion of the settlement is due in part to the results of its internal investigation, which the bank released earlier this month.

“The expansion of this agreement is another important step to make things right for our customers,” Tim Sloan, Wells Fargo’s president and chief executive officer, said.

“On our journey to rebuild trust, we want to ensure our customers feel confident that we have heard their concerns about retail sales practices, which includes offering them numerous opportunities for remediation,” Sloan continued. “We encourage any customer with concerns or questions about their accounts to contact us.”

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