The Wells Fargo bank, sentenced to pay 3,700 million dollars for "illegal practices" in loans and commissions

Wells Fargo, the third largest commercial bank in the US, has agreed to pay 3.7 billion dollars (about 3.5 billion euros, at current exchange rates) to settle lawsuits for irregularities in the management of mortgages, loans for the purchase of automobiles and abusive collection of commissions.

The complaints were filed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

This federal agency that defends consumer guarantees in the US, based in San Francisco (California), will return some 2,000 million dollars to clients harmed by their commercial practices and will pay another 1,700 million fines, according to a statement from the regulator published this Tuesday.

The entity ensures that many of the "required actions" linked to the agreement have already been satisfied.

"The bank's illegal conduct caused billions of dollars worth of damage to its clients and, for thousands of them, also the loss of their vehicles and homes," the agency said in its statement.

“Consumers were illegally charged commissions and interest charges on auto and mortgage loans, had their cars mistakenly repossessed, and the bank misapplied loan fees,” he adds.

The compensation will also compensate the collection of abusive commissions.

The CFPB stresses that Wells Fargo's "repeated cycle of violations of the law" has harmed millions of American families and that this settlement is an "important initial step toward accountability" for the entity.

Last year, the bank told its investors that it was likely to experience "problems or delays" in meeting the demands of multiple US regulators.

In October, it reserved 2,000 million dollars for legal, regulatory and intermediation matters with clients, which fueled the rumors about the proximity of the agreement announced this Tuesday.

But there are still regulatory obstacles, derived in part from a lawsuit that the entity has been dragging on since 2016 over a scandal of false accounts, added to previous episodes of irregularities that pushed the Federal Reserve (Fed) to limit the growth of its assets.

In April 2018, the bank was already fined $1 billion for abusing its customers.

Among expense forecasts, the bank discounted an operating loss of $3.5 billion, or $2.8 billion after tax, in the fourth quarter for the costs of the CFPB sanction and compensation to clients, as well as other legal matters.

Even so, it is expected to post an overall profit when it presents its annual accounts in mid-January.

The bank's shares were up less than 1% in early market trading on Tuesday.

“This far-reaching agreement is an important milestone in our work to transform Wells Fargo's operating practices and move past these issues,” Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf said in a statement.

“We and our regulators have identified a number of unacceptable practices that we have been systematically working to correct and compensate clients where warranted”

In 2016, a scandal caused by the creation of 3.5 million false accounts by employees of the entity to collect bonuses - which affected more than two million consumers according to an official investigation - increased scrutiny of their accounts by Congress. , financial regulators and public opinion.