(New York) The American bank Wells Fargo agreed to pay a billion dollars to shareholders who accused it of not having changed its management and its practices quickly enough after a series of scandals.
The agreement has been submitted to a federal judge in Manhattan and has yet to be validated by the magistrate, according to a document placed on file Monday.
In June 2020, a group of shareholders of the establishment, in particular the German bank Handelsbanken or the pension fund of the sheriffs of Louisiana, had seized justice, in the form of a collective action.
They felt aggrieved by Wells Fargo’s shortcomings in strengthening risk control and compliance, which matched commitments made to regulators in 2018.
At the time, the American central bank (Fed) had forced the Californian sign to submit a plan to take control of the management, accompanied by a temporary ban on increasing the size of its balance sheet, i.e. that is to develop.
The Fed’s injunction followed a series of scandals, including the creation of millions of accounts in the name of customers without their authorization or the improper collection of insurance premiums on car loans.
In March 2020, a parliamentary report had accused the bank of not having started a real reform of its governance and of not complying with the directives of the Fed in terms of risk management and compliance.
The course of Wells Fargo had then stalled on Wall Street and remains, today, close to the level to which it had descended.
Since 2016, the bank has had to pay several billion dollars to settle lawsuits targeting its business practices, mainly the opening of accounts without authorization.