A federal judge has given final approval to a $142 million settlement between Wells Fargo and customers who had bank accounts opened in their names without their consent.
U.S. District Court Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco
The court’s approval of the settlement “is a significant step forward in making things right for our customers and further restoring trust with all of Wells Fargo’s stakeholders,” CEO Tim Sloan said in the release. “We are pleased with this decision as it supports our efforts to help customers impacted by improper retail sales practices and ensures they have every opportunity for remediation.”
The settlement applies to customers who had accounts opened without their consent between May 2002 and April 2017. The period for filing claims ends July 7.
In September 2016, Wells agreed to pay $190 million in penalties to settle claims that it opened more than 2 million phony deposit and credit card accounts. About a year later, the bank said that its investigation into sales-practice abuses uncovered another 1.4 million accounts that may have been opened without customers' knowledge.
The bank is also grappling with other unresolved regulatory issues. In April it was fined $1 billion for mortgage and auto insurance abuses, and it has also launched internal investigations of its wealth management division and its foreign exchange business. Wells Fargo executives have
In its $142 million settlement of the fake-accounts lawsuit, Wells Fargo had previously set aside the full amount to cover the costs.
Munger, Tolles & Olson is legal counsel to Wells Fargo on the settlement. Keller Rohrback is counsel to the plaintiffs.
