Wells Fargo Legal Fees Could Be $100M More Than Forecasted

Wells Fargo, still reeling from its fake account scandal, said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Wednesday (March 1) that its legal fees for 2016 may have been $1.8 billion, which is $100 million more than the bank previously forecasted.

According to a report highlighting the SEC filing, three months ago, Wells Fargo said the fees would be $100 million less than what it is now saying. The bank also disclosed that the Department of Justice is looking into an incident in which Wells Fargo’s software was used in deals outside of the U.S., which are banned in America.

Wells Fargo said it “self-identified” the issue and that it is cooperating with the Department of Justice. The bank also warned there could be more customers who are impacted by the fake account opening scandal, but said it doesn’t expect a big financial hit as a result.

The disclosures on the part of Wells Fargo come at a time when the bank is trying to move away from the scandal which resulted in a fine by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the ouster of its chief executive. Earlier this month, Wells Fargo announced it has overhauled its Payments, Virtual Solutions and Innovation Group, with the new structure focused on enhancing the unit’s efforts in the payments market.

In a press release, Wells Fargo said it is focusing on payments, artificial intelligence and application programming interfaces (APIs) to help increase its payments efforts and speed up opportunities with corporate banking customers. The investments in each area will help the company create digital banking products and make it easier for customers to achieve their financial goals.

“Customers want new types of services that make banking and managing finances convenient and easy — without disrupting their ability to interact with us how and when they desire,” said Avid Modjtabai, head of Payments, Virtual Solutions and Innovation, in the press release at the time. “Since the announcement of our Payments, Virtual Solutions and Innovation Group in October, our goal has been to redefine the next generation of capabilities and offerings and to prioritize research and development that elevates the customer experience.”