PYMNTS Daily Data Dive: Wells Fargo Takes Incentives Too Far

Incentives are a way to optimize productivity and boost morale among employees, but the program instituted by Wells Fargo went seriously awry. In efforts to meet sales targets, Wells Fargo employees engaged in cross-selling, opened unauthorized deposit accounts and transferred funds without customer knowledge, submitted credit card applications for customers without their consent, issued and activated debit cards without authorization and created fictitious email addresses to enroll consumers in online banking services.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have levied the highest penalties ever on the leading U.S. bank, but this is not the first time that Wells Fargo has been taken to task. Wells Fargo was accused of “highly deceptive” student loan practices just a few weeks ago. Wells Fargo confirmed that it had already fired 5,300 employees for similar behavior in the past.

Here are the numbers:

$100 million | The amount that Wells Fargo has been fined by the CFPB

$85 million | The total amount to be paid to the Comptroller of the Currency ($35 million) and to the City and County of Los Angeles ($50 million)

565,443 | The number of credit card applications submitted by Wells Fargo employees without customer knowledge or consent

$400,000 | The amount of annual fees, interest charges and overdraft protection fees that were charged on credit cards that customers had not authorized

1.5 million | The number of deposit accounts that Wells Fargo employees opened that may not have been authorized