Wells Fargo announced the completion of an expanded third-party review of retail banking accounts dating back to the beginning of 2009. The bank said combined with a recent class action settlement and ongoing broad customer outreach and complaint resolution, the completion of the analysis further paves the way for making things right for Wells Fargo customers who may have been harmed by unacceptable retail sales practices.

Results of Expanded Data Analysis:

The original account analysis reviewed 93.5 million current and former customer accounts opened in an approximately four and half year time period – from May 2011 through mid-2015 – and identified approximately 2.1 million potentially unauthorized accounts. The expanded analysis reviewed more than 165 million retail banking accounts opened over a nearly eight-year period – from January 2009 through September 2016 – and identified a new total of approximately 3.5 million potentially unauthorized consumer and small business accounts. The 3.5 million potentially unauthorized accounts total is composed of the following:

• The original time period, which included refinements to the practices and methodologies previously used by the third party to determine potentially unauthorized accounts: 2.55 million accounts identified as potentially unauthorized
• The additional periods back to January 2009 and forward to September 2016: 981,000 accounts identified as potentially unauthorized
• In connection with these 3.5 million potentially unauthorized accounts, approximately 190,000 accounts incurred fees and charges, up from 130,000 previously identified accounts that incurred fees and charges, and Wells Fargo will provide a total of $2.8 million in additional refunds and credits on top of the $3.3 million previously refunded as a result of the original account review.

“We apologize to everyone who was harmed by unacceptable sales practices that occurred in our retail bank,” said Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan. “To rebuild trust and to build a better Wells Fargo, our first priority is to make things right for our customers, and the completion of this expanded third-party analysis is an important milestone. Through this expanded review, as well as the class action settlement, free mediation services, and ongoing outreach and complaint resolution, we’ve cast a wide net to reach customers and address their remaining concerns. Our commitment has never been stronger to build a better bank for our customers, team members, shareholders and communities.”