The CFPB levied a $185 million fine on Wells Fargo, and mandated refunds for their wronged customers, for opening “as many as 2 million accounts that bank customers never wanted,” which the CFPB and others called a ‘major breach of trust’ and ‘outrageous.'” The investigations leading to CFPB’s record-fine “found that employees illegally transferred funds from genuine accounts into unauthorized ones, created PINs for unwanted debit cards and made up bogus email addresses to secretly sign customers up for online banking.” Wells Fargo claimed it fired 5,300 employees over involvement in the issue, agreed to apologize to its customers, and paid $100 million to the CFPB directly, “the largest fine the federal agency has ever imposed.”

• On September 8, 2016, the CFPB fined Wells Fargo $185 million for what it called a “‘major breach of trust’ and ‘outrageous'” behavior. Employees opened “as many as 2 million accounts that bank customers never wanted.” [James Rufus Koren, “Wells Fargo to pay $185 million settlement for ‘outrageous’ sales culture” , Los Angeles Times, 09/08/16]

• “The settlements put to rest a lawsuit filed last year by Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer as well as investigations by two federal regulators: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.” [James Rufus Koren, “Wells Fargo to pay $185 million settlement for ‘outrageous’ sales culture” , Los Angeles Times, 09/08/16]

• While not admitting wrongdoing, Wells Fargo “apologized to customers and announced steps to change its sales practices.” [James Rufus Koren, “Wells Fargo to pay $185 million settlement for ‘outrageous’ sales culture”, Los Angeles Times, 09/08/16]

• “The investigations found that employees illegally transferred funds from genuine accounts into unauthorized ones, created PINs for unwanted debit cards and made up bogus email addresses to secretly sign customers up for online banking.” [James Rufus Koren, “Wells Fargo to pay $185 million settlement for ‘outrageous’ sales culture” , Los Angeles Times, 09/08/16]

• “Additionally, Wells Fargo said it terminated approximately 5,300 employees and managers over a five-year period for their involvement with the unauthorized accounts. The firings, representing roughly 1% of the total workforce during that time.” [Kevin McCoy, “Wells Fargo fined $185M for fake accounts; 5,300 were fired”, USA Today, 09/08/16]

• Wells Fargo paid a $100 million fine to the CFPB, which was the “largest fine the federal agency has ever imposed.” Wells Fargo also paid “$50 million to the city and county of Los Angeles and $35 million to the OCC.” [James Rufus Koren, “Wells Fargo to pay $185 million settlement for ‘outrageous’ sales culture”, Los Angeles Times, 09/08/16]