wells fargo damage control has only just begun. The company fell into the fire when it was revealed that there were over 2 million accounts fraudulently opened at the Bank in an effort to meet quotas in a demanding environment. On Thursday, that number increased by nearly 70 percent. The outrage directed at Wells Fargo isn't going to stop anytime soon, even if this particular investigation has reached its troublesome conclusion.
Wells Fargo reveals new problems
Thursday's revelations at Wells Fargo came as a result of an internal investigation. The CEO of the company previously warned employees that bad news was coming down the pipeline, so the revelation wasn't a major reveal.
Nevertheless, it's another massive hit against the financial institution and it's eroding public trust. At first, the number was 2.1 million unauthorized accounts. Now, that number has skyrocketed to 3.5 million.
One of the reasons for the change is an increase in scope. Previously, the investigation looked at numbers from May 2011 until sometime in the middle of 2015. The latest investigation looked at numbers beginning in January 2009 and lasting through September 2016. That means as recently as a year ago, the practice of opening unauthorized accounts at Wells Fargo bank locations was still a widespread epidemic.
How Wells Fargo is responding
CEO Timothy Sloan is attempting to move the healing process along right now.
In a statement, he noted that the priority was to restore faith and trust with Wells Fargo customers who have been negatively affected by this scandal. He declared that the completion of the investigation was an important step in the process -- customers and consumer advocates are probably going to want to see more concrete steps being taken to curb the practice of opening unauthorized accounts in customers' names.
The bank is putting their money where their mouth is. After the original investigation, Wells Fargo put aside $3.3 million dollars to go toward restitution in regard to fees and charges related to unauthorized accounts. The bank is prepared to add another $2.8 million to that total. That may not be enough, though. Faith in the institution has eroded, and people are prepared to take their business elsewhere. The culture at Wells Fargo may be undergoing a seismic shift to curb bad practices, but many consumers are not going to follow the bank to the other side.
