As part of the settlement agreement which of the following has Wells Fargo agreed to

Wells Fargo, the nation's fourth-largest bank, agreed Friday to pay a $3 billion fine to settle a civil lawsuit and resolve a criminal prosecution filed by the Justice Department over its fake account scandal.

Under pressure to meet sales quotas, bank employees opened millions of savings and checking accounts in the names of actual customers, without their knowledge or consent. Since the fraud became public in 2016, the bank has faced a torrent of lawsuits. The scheme lasted more than a decade, Justice Department officials said, and was carried out by thousands of Wells Fargo employees.

“This settlement holds Wells Fargo accountable for tolerating fraudulent conduct that is remarkable both for its duration and scope and for its blatant disregard of customer private information," said Michael Granston of the Justice Department's Civil Division.

Department officials said the bank took several steps to conceal the accounts from customers, such as forging customer signatures and preventing other Wells Fargo employees from contacting customers during routine surveys about their accounts.

None of the money to be paid to the government under this settlement will go to compensate customers. But officials said Wells Fargo has separately made efforts to compensate victims for potential losses — such as fees they might have been charged or harm to their credit ratings, if any.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said $500 million of the settlement would be used to compensate investors who responded to the bank’s promotion of its “cross-sell” strategy — selling more products and services to existing customers.

"We take seriously the rights of customers, creditors, and investors, all of whom were harmed by this conduct, where the bank was making up sales activities to get a competitive advantage over its customers," a senior Justice Department official said.

As part of the settlement, Wells Fargo admitted that employees were pressured to sell large volumes of new products to existing customers as a way of generating more business, often with little regard for a customer's actual needs. Bank employees began calling the practice "gaming," and it included opening accounts without a customer's knowledge, issuing credit and debit cards, and moving money from existing accounts to the fraudulently opened ones.

As part of Friday's settlement, the Justice Department agreed not to criminally prosecute the bank during the three-year term of the agreement, provided that Wells Fargo continues to cooperate with government investigations.

The agreement was reached with the bank itself, not with any individuals responsible for the fraud. But last month, the bank's former chief executive, John Stumpf, was fined $17.5 million by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for his role in the scandal. Other former bank executives were hit with smaller fines.

Pete Williams is an NBC News correspondent who covers the Justice Department and the Supreme Court, based in Washington.

Payment Will Be Distributed to Harmed Investors

Washington D.C., Feb. 21, 2020 —

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged California-based Wells Fargo & Co. for misleading investors about the success of its core business strategy at a time when it was opening fake accounts for unknowing customers and selling unnecessary products that went unused. Wells Fargo has agreed to pay $500 million to settle the charges, which will be returned to investors. The $500 million payment is part of a combined $3 billion settlement with the SEC and the Department of Justice.

According to the SEC’s order, between 2012 and 2016, Wells Fargo publicly touted to investors the success of its Community Bank’s “cross-sell” strategy – selling additional financial products to its existing customers – which it characterized as a key component of its financial success. The order finds that Wells Fargo sought to induce investors’ continued reliance on the cross-sell metric even though it was inflated by accounts and services that were unused, unneeded, or unauthorized. According to the order, from 2002 to 2016, Wells Fargo opened millions of accounts of financial products that were unauthorized or fraudulent. Wells Fargo’s Community Bank also pressured customers to buy products they did not need and would not use. The order finds that these accounts were opened through sales practices inconsistent with Wells Fargo’s investor disclosures regarding its purported needs-based selling model.

“Wells Fargo repeatedly misled investors, including through a misleading performance metric, about what it claimed to be the cornerstone of its Community Bank business model and its ability to grow revenue and earnings,” said Stephanie Avakian, Co-Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “This settlement holds Wells Fargo responsible for its fraud and furthers the SEC’s goal of returning funds to harmed investors.”

The SEC’s order finds that Wells Fargo violated the antifraud provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Wells Fargo has agreed to cease and desist from committing or causing any future violations of these provisions and to pay a civil penalty of $500 million. The SEC will distribute this money to harmed investors.

The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Victor Hong, John Roscigno, Jason H. Lee, and Erin E. Wilk, with assistance from Suzy LaMarca and John Han, under the supervision of Monique C. Winkler of the San Francisco Regional Office. Polly Hayes, Dustin Ruta, and Karen Klotz of the Philadelphia Regional Office also assisted the investigation. The SEC's investigation is continuing.

The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Central District of California and the Western District of North Carolina, the Civil Division of the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation - Office of Inspector General, the Federal Housing Finance Agency - Office of Inspector General, the Office of Inspector General for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the U.S.Postal Inspection Service.

What is the Wells Fargo settlement?

How did Wells Fargo deal with the scandal?

What was Wells Fargo accused of?

How much are people getting from the Wells Fargo settlement?