Shares of Wells Fargo (WFC) are ticking lower after the company that a third party review revealed that 3.5M accounts could have been created without authorization. The bank’s previous estimates was 2.1M.
Wells explained this morning in a press release, “The original account analysis reviewed 93.5 million current and former customer accounts opened in an approximately four and half year time period – from May 2011 through mid-2015 – and identified approximately 2.1 million potentially unauthorized accounts. The expanded analysis reviewed more than 165 million retail banking accounts opened over a nearly eight-year period – from January 2009 through September 2016 – and identified a new total of approximately 3.5 million potentially unauthorized consumer and small business accounts.”
Approximately 190,000 of the potential unauthorized accounts incurred fees and charges, up from 130,000 previously identified accounts that incurred fees and charges. Wells Fargo said it will provide a total of $2.8M in additional refunds and credits on top of the $3.3M previously refunded as a result of the original account review. “We apologize to everyone who was harmed by unacceptable sales practices that occurred in our retail bank,” said Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan. “To rebuild trust and to build a better Wells Fargo, our first priority is to make things right for our customers, and the completion of this expanded third-party analysis is an important milestone.”
Wells shares in premarket trading are down 27c to $51.09.
