Wells Fargo Expands Class-Action Settlement to Cases From 2002 -- Update
April 21 2017 - 10:06AM
Dow Jones News
By Austen Hufford and Emily Glazer
Wells Fargo & Co. expanded a tentative customer agreement,
now offering compensation to consumers hurt by the bank's sales
practices as early as May 2002.
The new $142 million potential settlement adds $32 million to
the previous agreement. The original one, announced last month,
covered consumers who were impacted from 2009 onward.
The expanded settlement comes after the San Francisco-based
bank's board earlier this month released a report diving into how a
high-pressure sales strategy that went back as far as 2002 led to
as many as 2.1 million accounts being created using fictitious or
unauthorized customer information. That was the first time the bank
admitted the activity went back farther than 2009.
On a call with media earlier this month after the board report
was published, Wells Fargo Chief Executive Timothy Sloan said the
bank has "gone out of our way" in contacting customers. That was in
response to a question over whether Wells Fargo would refund
customers going back to 2002 given the time frame of aggressive
sales tactics disclosed in the board report.
Wells Fargo said Friday that customers who were charged improper
fees 2002 through 2008 will receive a flat-rate fee reimbursement
that will be based on the average of fees paid out for more recent
customers.
Law firm Keller Rohrback LLP, which is representing customers in
the settlement, said in a news release that the federal judge
overseeing the case has scheduled a hearing for May 18 to grant
preliminary approval to the settlement. If that happens, customers
will begin receiving more information about settlement benefits
before the court grants final approval.
Write to Austen Hufford at austen.hufford@wsj.com and Emily
Glazer at emily.glazer@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 21, 2017 10:51 ET (14:51 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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