Wells Fargo

The record

Compiled by the MrScandal desk from the documents below · Desk editor Laima Ērkšķe-Kreicberga · Nov 10, 2026

The $3.7 billion Wells Fargo settlement is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's order of December 20, 2022: a $1.7 billion civil penalty plus more than $2 billion in redress across more than 16 million consumer accounts, over misapplied auto-loan payments, wrongful repossessions, improperly denied mortgage modifications, frozen accounts and surprise overdraft fees. Wells Fargo announced on January 28, 2025 that the order had terminated. The newest class settlement is a separate $85 million deal with shareholders who bought stock between February 24, 2021 and June 9, 2022, over the bank's statements about diverse-candidate hiring. The court granted final approval on May 21, 2026, the April 14, 2026 claim deadline has passed, and Wells Fargo denied the allegations.

The fake-accounts case began on September 8, 2016, when the CFPB, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Los Angeles City Attorney announced $185 million in penalties. The CFPB cited the bank's own analysis that employees opened more than two million deposit and credit card accounts that may not have been authorized. On February 21, 2020, Wells Fargo agreed to pay $3 billion to resolve Justice Department and SEC investigations and admitted that from 2002 to 2016 sales pressure led employees to provide millions of accounts or products under false pretenses or without consent. The criminal investigation was resolved with a three-year deferred prosecution agreement. In 2023 a court approved a separate $1 billion shareholder class settlement.

Former chief executive John Stumpf received a 2018 Federal Reserve letter saying his performance fell short of its expectations, consented in January 2020 to an OCC order barring him from banking and a $17.5 million penalty, and in November 2020 paid the SEC $2.5 million without admitting or denying its findings. Carrie Tolstedt, who ran the Community Bank, agreed in March 2023 to an OCC banking ban and a $17 million penalty and to plead guilty to obstructing the OCC's examination. She settled the SEC's fraud case for a $3 million penalty plus disgorgement. In September 2023 she was sentenced to three years of probation, including six months of home confinement, rather than the 12 months in prison prosecutors had sought.

The regulatory orders have since closed one after another. The CFPB's 2016 order expired in September 2021, the OCC ended its 2016 sales-practices order in February 2024 and its 2018 compliance order in February 2025, and the Federal Reserve lifted the asset cap on June 3, 2025 before terminating its 2018 enforcement action on March 5, 2026. The Justice Department and the SEC closed their diversity-hiring investigations without taking action. Wells Fargo's report for the quarter ended September 30, 2026 still describes a September 2024 formal agreement with the OCC on anti-money-laundering and sanctions risk management.

Roles and honours on the record

• 1852 Founded as Wells, Fargo & Co. by Henry Wells and William G. Fargo, with bank and express businesses source
• 2008 Acquirer of Wachovia Corporation and its subsidiary banks, approved by the Federal Reserve Board source
• 2018-2025 Subject to a Federal Reserve restriction on growing beyond its total assets at the end of 2017 source
• 2018-2026 Subject to the Federal Reserve's 2018 enforcement action on governance and risk management, terminated March 5, 2026 source
• 2020 Party to a three-year deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department over sales practices source
• as of 2026 Party to a September 2024 formal agreement with the OCC on anti-money-laundering and sanctions risk management source