The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency fined Wells Fargo $500 million over risk management, auto loan and mortgage practices.
The OCC fine is being credited against an additional $1 billion fine from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the largest it has handed out.
The OCC found deficiencies in the bank’s enterprise-wide compliance risk management program that constituted reckless, unsafe, or unsound practices under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act. It also found the bank violated the FTC Act and engaged in unsafe and unsound practices relating to improper placement and maintenance of collateral protection insurance policies on auto loan accounts and improper fees associated with interest rate lock extensions.
The bank will be required to make restitution to customers harmed by its practices. It will also have to develop and implement an effective enterprise-wide compliance risk management program.
Because of the fine, Wells Fargo revised its first quarter earnings numbers, adjusting its net income down to $4.7 billion from $5.9 billion.
“While we have more work to do, these orders affirm that we share the same priorities with our regulators and that we are committed to working with them as we deliver our commitments with focus, accountability, and transparency,” said CEO Tim Sloan. “Our customers deserve only the best from Wells Fargo, and we are committed to delivering that.”
It’s been a rough couple years for Wells Fargo. Earlier this year, the Federal Reserve put growth restrictions on the bank and demanded it replace four of its board members over what it called “widespread consumer abuses and compliance breakdowns.”
The February cease and desist order would prevent Wells Fargo from growing larger than its asset size at the end of 2017 “until it sufficiently improves its governance and controls.” This was the first time the Fed put a cap on a bank’s overall growth. Wells Fargo had $1.9 trillion in assets at the end of last year.
“We cannot tolerate pervasive and persistent misconduct at any bank and the consumers harmed by Wells Fargo expect that robust and comprehensive reforms will be put in place to make certain that the abuses do not occur again,” said Janet Yellen, who was chair of the Fed at the time.
Additionally, in September 2016, Wells Fargo was docked nearly $200 million by the CFPB, OCC and the city and county of Los Angeles for widespread practices around opening unauthorized consumer accounts. Sloan replaced former CEO John Stumpf in the wake of the scandal.
At the time, the $100 million fine levied by the CFPB was the largest it had given out.