Page 30 - Wells Fargo Bank (C) Case Study

It was claimed that WFB had opened as many as 1.5 million

bank accounts and 565,000 credit card accounts that may
not have been approved by customers. The company

agreed to pay $185 million in penalties and fines to settle

the cases brought by federal regulators and the Los Angeles

city attorney in May 2015. But, although Stumpf apologized
for his bank’s failings and repeated his earlier pledge to

accept “full responsibility” for them, he refused to accept

that the failings were a consequence of broader failings in

Wells Fargo’s leadership and corporate culture, saying:

“I led the company with courage,”

Stumpf admitted that the company “should have done more

sooner” to address the problem of unauthorized accounts

being created by employees in the names of real customers.

Around 10 percent of the 5,300 worked at the branch
manager level or above, according to the bank, but only one

- an area president - had a high-level management role.

However, at the beginning of August, 2017, WFB admitted to
more unauthorised accounts raising the total to around 3.5

million of which approximately 190,000 incurred fees and

charges. WFB agreed to provide an additional $2.8 million in
refunds and credits on top of the $3.3 million it has already

refunded to affected customers. (9)

Additionally, WFB also disclosed unauthorized activity in its
online bill pay services. (9)