The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of Currency (OCC) has recently indicated that it has uncovered evidence that employees of banks other than Wells Fargo may have opened unauthorized accounts without the permission of their patrons.

The 2016 Wells Fargo scandal revealed 3.5 million likely unauthorized accounts that included bank-sponsored credit cards.

When news of the scandal originally broke, it was believed that there were 2.1 million unauthorized accounts, but that figure was revised to an additional 1.4 million in September 2017, according to a CNN article. The report also said that unauthorized accounts for online bill pay were additionally found, totaling about a half million.

Close to 200,000 of the 3.5 million unauthorized accounts generated fees for the bank which were paid for out of established and authorized patron accounts. Additionally, bill pay services generally require an enrollment fee be charged to set up.

Wells Fargo claimed that through a corporate culture that went astray, sales goals were established and incentivized for employees that were probably unrealistic. This compelled bank workers to go to extraordinary means to meet said goals including setting up unauthorized accounts and unnecessary services.

As of September 2017, Wells Fargo management has offered $6.1 million in recovery funds for patrons affected by this practice. Additionally, they have promised close to a million dollars to rebate fees charged for unauthorized online bill pay services. To resolve a national class action lawsuit, the bank agreed to a settlement over and above these amounts of $142 million.

Flash Forward

In response to the Wells Fargo bank scandal, the OCC was pushed into doing its own behind the scenes investigation of some of the nation’s largest banks. According to another CNN online article, up to 40 midsize to larger banks were part of the records review designed to uncover similar trends in the financial industry if they were to be found.

The OCC didn’t specifically name the Bank of Oklahoma or any other financial agency which they involved in this investigation. They did say, however, that they found unauthorized fake accounts along with compromises in standard operating procedures, policies, and risk mitigation controls in several of the banks.

The OCC also attributed some cases to random employee misconduct that did not suggest any systemic issue at play.

According to the most recent report, the OCC has no plans to reveal whether fake accounts were found at the Bank of Oklahoma or the identity of any of the institutions reviewed.

A spokesperson for the national agency has said that where the fake accounts were located, the associated institutions are cooperating by closing them, refunding fees, and addressing credit bureau misinformation.

An article published by American Banker indicated that the OCC issued 252 alerts to individual banking institutions about matters that needed attention. It also revealed that problems were found across the board to be critically in need of change in the financial industry.