La Jornada – Wells Fargo fined $3,700 million

New York. Wells Fargo, the third-largest bank in the United States, has agreed to pay $3.7 billion to settle lawsuits alleging irregularities in the administration of mortgages and auto loans and wrongful commission litigation.

The complaints were filed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). This is the largest civil penalty imposed by a consumer regulator in the United States.

Of that figure, $2 billion will be returned to customers affected by their business practices and $1.7 billion for fines, according to a statement from the regulator. The entity ensures that many of the “required actions” associated with the agreement have already been met.

Wells Fargo described the deal as an “important milestone” for the bank’s progress after a series of scandals. The first complaints date back to 2015, when the bank was accused of wrongdoing in managing car loans, which resulted in unexplained expenses or unjustified forfeiture.

In addition, for several years the bank refused thousands of real estate debtors to modify the terms of their credits, a possibility that was provided for by law and contracts.

This refusal led, according to the Diwan, to the confiscation of some real estate, as the debtors were unable to fulfill their obligations.

“Wells Fargo’s repeated violations of the law have harmed millions of American families,” CFPB director Rohit Chopra was quoted as saying in a statement.

Penalty on TSB-Sabadell

Britain’s TSB Bank, a subsidiary of Spanish company Sabadell, was fined 48.7 million pounds ($59.1 million) on Tuesday in the United Kingdom over a serious computer malfunction in 2018 that affected several customers.

“The errors in this case were widespread and serious, and this had a real impact on the daily lives of a significant portion of TSB’s clients,” the FCA said in a statement.