In a mass effort to reach sales goals set by the Wells Fargo Corp., employees of the banking institution reportedly opened at least $3.5 million worth of unauthorized accounts on behalf of uninformed patrons. This scandal came to light in 2016-2017 and spurred further investigation of larger financial organizations like Capital One Bank.

While Wells Fargo was forced to settle the unauthorized accounts issue with a $142 million settlement, consumer advocates suspect Capital One Bank, along with other giants in the finance world like Bank of America, TD Bank, HSBC, Royal Bank of Canada, and BOK Financial, might well be engaged in the same behavior.

The motivation to open unauthorized accounts for employees is reportedly the promise of paycheck bonuses. The motivation for the bank generally is more of a platform from which to charge the customer overdraft, service, and interest charges.

OCC Investigation into Unauthorized Accounts

In a June 13 article by the LA Times, the head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) Joseph Otting indicated that a post-Wells Fargo scandal review of top financial institutions uncovered a whopping 20,000 problematic checking, savings, and credit card accounts. The findings were mentioned in a congressional interview, but names of specific financial institutions were not revealed.

Otting purportedly told members of the House Financial Services Committee that less than half of the 20,000 were likely fully unauthorized accounts. The review, which allegedly scrutinized financial institutions with assets of $10 billion or more, was concluded by the end of December 2017.

The OCC regulates federally chartered banks and its head notes that such reviews are private. Because of this, the conversation Otting had with the committee didn’t name names. Nevertheless, the agency administrator claimed that the suspected unauthorized accounts were not evidence of systemic problems in the banks investigated.

According to the LA Times article, the OCC review scrutinized over 500 million accounts opened since early 2015. The spokesperson for the OCC wouldn’t provide details about how the review was undertaken, but did say that the 20,000 accounts found didn’t have appropriate documentation of authorization or disclosures necessary.

Other players in the financial world question the outcome of the OCC’s review because of the lack of specific information provided by the agency. Bank analyst Bert Ely told the LA Times that he wondered whether the scrutiny involved reviewing a few accounts and extrapolating from there. He reportedly believes the number is too small to be realistic and is more than likely an estimate.

A spokesperson for a U.S. Public Interest Research Group Ed Mierzwinski indicated to the LA Times that he shared this disbelief as well. He wanted more information on the process the OCC took to review large asset banks, such as Capital One Bank. One of his questions was whether paper documentation was reviewed or electronic records only. He expressed a desire, according to the LA Times article, to have the committee members push for more answers from Otting.

Did you have an account opened without your authorization at Capital One Bank or any other financial institution? Were you then subject to overdraft, interest, or service fees on that account? You may have a legal claim. Fill out our form to request a free initial consultation.