Wells Fargo to Pay New York $65M Over Cross-Selling

Wells Fargo has agreed to pay a penalty of $65 million as part of a settlement reached with  New York Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood concerning the bank’s cross-selling business model and sales practices.

“The misconduct at Wells Fargo was widespread across the bank and at every level of management — impacting both customers and investors who were misled,” according to Underwood.

Wells Fargo’s board began receiving reports about sales-practice misconduct in 2011, and its former CEO told Congress that he learned of the widespread fraud in 2013. The bank, though, did not disclose such information to investors.

“State securities laws are vital to protecting the hard-earned savings of working families and Main Street investors from financial fraud, and my office will continue to do what’s necessary to protect the public and the integrity of our markets,” Underwood said in a statement.

Though selling new products and services to existing clients is widespread across the financial industry, Wells Fargo “failed to disclose to investors that the success of its cross-sell efforts was built on sales-practice misconduct at the bank,” the attorney general’s office added.

“Driven by strict and unrealistic sales goals, employees in Wells Fargo’s Community Bank division engaged in fraudulent sales practices, including the opening of millions of fake deposit and credit card accounts without customers’ knowledge,” it added.

According to an email from June 2011 reviewed and shared by New York regulators, a member of the bank’s incentive compensation team said: “I’ve asked bankers … why people cheat … it’s because their manager tells them they’ll be fired if they don’t hit their minimums.”