🏦 Wells Fargo fake accounts: $185M fine, $3B deal, cap lifted

The bank called its conduct "reprehensible" in 2020, but settled the 2016 case without admitting or denying the findings. Asset cap lifted 2025. 🗣️

By , business desk · Desk editor Laima Ērkšķe-Kreicberga · · 5 min read

John StumpfSETTLEDPhoto: John Ruckman · CC BY 2.0

Photo: John Ruckman, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Desaturated and cropped by MrScandal.

By the numbers

  • 3y 3mfrom first to latest entry on recordOct 2016 to Jan 2020, 3 dated entries in the file
  • 12receipts behind this story10 news reports, 2 regulator records, 2013 to 2025

Counted by MrScandal from the receipts, the Files and our rankings.

The ledger on Wells Fargo's fake-accounts scandal runs from a 2013 newspaper investigation to a Federal Reserve cap that lasted seven years. The amounts are large. The accounts were not. MrMoney has stuck to what the documents say.

What we know

  • On Sept. 8, 2016, Wells Fargo agreed to pay $185 million: $100 million to the CFPB, $35 million to the OCC and $50 million to Los Angeles, per the CFPB's announcement.
  • The bank's own analysis found employees opened more than two million deposit and credit card accounts that may not have been authorized, the CFPB said.
  • On Feb. 21, 2020, the Justice Department and SEC resolved the case for $3 billion, and CNN reported the bank admitted falsifying bank records.
  • The Federal Reserve capped Wells Fargo's total assets at their end-2017 size on Feb. 2, 2018; Reuters reported in June 2025 that the cap was lifted after seven years.
01

December 2013: a newspaper asks, the bank says it sees no problem

The Los Angeles Times reported on Dec. 21, 2013, after reviewing internal bank documents and court records and interviewing 35 current and former employees, that sales quotas pushed staff to open accounts customers did not need. Then-CFO Timothy Sloan told the paper, "I'm not aware of any overbearing sales culture." Wells Fargo officials said they make ethical conduct a priority and fire employees who do not serve customers properly. Sloan later became CEO.

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02

September 2016: the $185 million first penalty

On Sept. 8, 2016, the CFPB, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Los Angeles city attorney announced $185 million in penalties. The CFPB's $100 million was the largest it had ever imposed, per its own release. Wells Fargo said it fired approximately 5,300 employees and managers over five years, and it agreed to the CFPB consent order without admitting or denying the legal conclusions, USA Today reported. The bank said it "regret[s] and take[s] responsibility for any instances where customers may have received a product that they did not request."

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"The 5,300 were dishonest, and that is not part of our culture."

John Stumpf, then Wells Fargo CEO, to the Senate Banking Committee, as reported by The New York Times, Sept. 20, 2016
03

September 2016: the CEO meets the Senate

John Stumpf testified for more than two hours, The New York Times reported, and rejected senators' description of the sales practices as a deliberate scheme. He said he would not weigh in on clawing back executive pay, because that decision rested with the board, which he chaired. Senator Elizabeth Warren told him: "This is gutless leadership." Stumpf told the panel he was "very sorry that that happened."

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04

October 2016: Stumpf retires

Bloomberg reported on Oct. 12, 2016, that Stumpf stepped down as chief executive and chairman, effective immediately, according to a bank statement. Tim Sloan took over as CEO. Stumpf was 63.

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05

April 2017: the board takes back $75 million

A board-commissioned report, written by the law firm Shearman & Sterling, said Stumpf ignored growing evidence of the problem and that Carrie Tolstedt, who ran community banking, set sales goals even she acknowledged were unreachable. The board said it would claw back an additional $75 million. In all, Stumpf would surrender $69 million and Tolstedt $67 million, The New York Times reported. Tolstedt's lawyer said, "We strongly disagree with the report." Neither executive was available for comment that day.

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06

February 2018: the Fed caps the balance sheet

On Feb. 2, 2018, the Federal Reserve said Wells Fargo would be "restricted from growing any larger than its total asset size as of the end of 2017" until it made sufficient improvements. The bank had nearly $2 trillion in assets then. The Fed also required four of the 16 board members to be replaced by year-end, The New York Times reported. Sloan said the action related to past conduct and did not affect the bank's financial condition.

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07

February 2020: the $3 billion resolution

On Feb. 21, 2020, the Justice Department and the SEC resolved the criminal and civil exposure for $3 billion, CNN reported. The criminal side was a deferred prosecution agreement, under which authorities would not prosecute for three years if the bank met conditions. The bank admitted it falsified bank records and that community bank managers knew of the gaming practices as early as 2002. CEO Charlie Scharf called the conduct "reprehensible." CNN also reported that a month earlier Stumpf agreed to a lifetime banking ban and a $17.5 million fine. His response to that outcome is not in the documents read.

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08

December 2022: a separate $3.7 billion bill

The CFPB announced a $3.7 billion settlement over auto loans, mortgages and deposit accounts, including a record $1.7 billion civil penalty. This was a different matter from the fake accounts. CNBC reported that the bank was still under consent orders from the 2016 scandal, including the Fed's cap, with nine orders remaining, according to a bank official.

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09

May 2023: shareholders get $1 billion

The Wall Street Journal reported on May 15, 2023, that Wells Fargo agreed to pay shareholders $1 billion to settle a class action. The shareholders alleged that the bank and its past leadership misled them about how swiftly it was fixing governance and risk-management problems after the fake-accounts scandal.

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10

June 2025: the cap comes off

Reuters reported on June 4, 2025, under the headline "Wells Fargo escapes Fed's asset cap after seven years, able to pursue growth." The article's body text was not available to us, so any conditions attached to the lift are unknown here.

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Bloomberg's Matt Levine did the arithmetic in 2016: about $2.4 million in fee income across roughly 2.1 million fake accounts, or about $1.14 per account. The fines came to a rather higher multiple.

The John Stumpf file

Last entry Jan 2020
  1. Reported

    CNN reported Stumpf agreed to a lifetime banking ban and a $17.5M fine. This story

  2. Reported

    Board report said Stumpf would surrender $69M in total; his counterpart Tolstedt's lawyer disputed the findings. This story

  3. Reported

    Bloomberg reported Stumpf stepped down as Wells Fargo chief executive and chairman, per a bank statement. This story

On file: The John Stumpf file · The Wells Fargo file

The Ledger

On the record

  • Regulators fined Wells Fargo $185 million in 2016, the DOJ and SEC resolved the case for $3 billion in 2020, and the Fed imposed a 2018 asset cap that Reuters reported lifted in 2025.

Still rumour

  • Stumpf's response to the 2020 ban and fine, and the full terms of the 2025 cap lift, are not in the documents read.

That's the record. The rest is rumour. - MrMoney

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