Wells Fargo Hit With $450K Fine
Bay State regulators gave the bank 159 warnings over the need to register agents and supervisors.
William Galvin, Massachusetts’ top securities regulator, fined Wells Fargo $450,000 Tuesday for failing to register its agents and supervisors in the Bay State despite repeat warnings to do so by the regulator.
During the 30-month period examined by Galvin’s Securities Division, 1,098 Wells Fargo agents and 561 Wells Fargo supervisors of agents had a lapse in their Massachusetts’ registrations.
Wells Fargo has more than 9,400 agents registered in the state.
The lapses in registration occurred despite the fact that the Securities Division told Wells Fargo at least 159 times that certain supervisors are required by state regulations to register between Jan. 1, 2017 and July 31, 2018,
Along with the censure and fine, Wells Fargo agreed to register its agents conducting securities business in Massachusetts and to review and enhance its own policies and procedures related to registering its agents.
The bank said in a statement Tuesday that it is “pleased to have resolved this matter with the Massachusetts Securities Division.”
Wells Fargo lost 3% of its advisors between June 30, 2019, and June 30, 2018. It now has 13,799 — down 29 from the prior quarter, 427 from last year and 1,287 from Sept. 30, 2016 (when news of its fake-accounts scandal spread).
(For more on the bank’s woes see: A Timeline of Wells Fargo’s Scandals.)