The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau left very little unsaid when it announced, a few days before Christmas, $3.7 billion in assessments against Wells Fargo Bank for more than a decade of legal violations harming its millions of customers.
The total included a $1.7-billion civil penalty, the largest imposed by the CFPB in its 11-year history, and an additional $2 billion in redress and restitution for cheated customers.
"Put simply, Wells Fargo is a corporate recidivist that puts one-third of American households at risk of harm," CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said, calling the giant bank "one of the most problematic repeat offenders" in its jurisdiction.
