Wells Fargo to pay $35 million in a civil penalty

Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE: WFC) has returned a total of $40 million to 10,945 of its customers who were overcharged for investment advice, as per the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Wells Fargo is paying to settle the SEC charges

On Friday, the financial services behemoth also agreed to a civil penalty worth $35 million to settle aforementioned claims that it neither admitted nor denied. According to Gurbir Grewal – an SEC director:

For years, Wells Fargo and its predecessor firms negotiated reduced advisory fees with thousands of clients, but failed to honour them.

The lender had previously settled with the CFPB – Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as well over mismanagement of, among other things, mortgages as Invezz reported here.

It then proceeded to trim its footprint in home lending.

Here’s what a Wells Fargo spokesperson said today

Wells Fargo is pleased to move past these charges that relate to accounts which were opened before 2014 and were overcharged for years. Its spokesperson Caroline Szyperski also said on Friday:

The process that caused this issue was corrected nearly a decade ago. Wells Fargo Advisors conducted a thorough review of accounts and has fully reimbursed affected customers.

Note that excess fees are known to significantly eat into savings. The news arrives more than a month after the Wall Street bank reported solid results for its second financial quarter on the back of higher interest rates (find out more).

Shares of Wells Fargo & Co are still down more than 10% versus about a month ago.