American banking major Wells Fargo has agreed to pay $37.3m to settle charges of fraud lawsuits for falsely overcharging foreign exchange customers.
Wells Fargo will pay the fine of $37.3m to the United States as civil penalties and as asset forfeiture.
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Notably, the lender has already paid approximately $35.3m directly to the 771 customers collectively as restitution that brings the total fine to $72.6m.
The Department of Justice said that between 2010-2017 Wells Fargo’s FX sales specialists overcharged commercial customers by applying larger sales margins or spreads than they said they would.
Furthermore, in some cases when customers inquired about the higher pricing, the sales specialists would give them false explanations.
US Attorney Audrey Strauss said: “We all put trust in our banking institutions to deal with us honestly, fairly, and transparently when we are their customers. For the better part of a decade, Wells Fargo abused this trust, using tricks, false information, and other deceptive practices to fraudulently overcharge customers who used the Bank’s foreign exchange service.”
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By GlobalDataThe lender has already paid billions in fines for its scandals.
Earlier this month, Wells Fargo received a $250m civil money penalty from a banking regulator for failing to pay back customers as per a 2018 consent order.
Later, US Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote a letter to the Federal Reserve urging it to revoke Wells Fargo’s status as a financial holding company.
The Senator called Wells Fargo “an irredeemable repeat offender” and presented several examples of lender’s financial misconduct.
Warren added: “Every single day that Wells Fargo continues to maintain these depository accounts is a day that millions of customers remain at risk of additional negligence and willful fraud.”
In February last year, Wells Fargo and its subsidiary Wells Fargo Bank agreed to pay a penalty of $3bn to settle a probe into its fake-account creation scandal.
