While the news of Wells Fargo employees’ creation of unauthorized accounts kept consumers’ attention for months, do you know what the employees at your own bank were doing?

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) decided to look into the practices of more than 40 other banks to see if the Wells Fargo situation was unique. Wells Fargo employees opened millions of unauthorized accounts during a competitive sales competition that required them to boast an extremely high sales volume.

The OCC found that other banks’ employees had been opening new accounts without proving they had the customers’ consent to do so, says an article in American Banker.

The OCC declined to disclose which banks were suspected of opening unauthroized accounts. But private consumer advocates have begun a bank lawsuit investigation looking into possible employee misconduct at TD Bank, Bank of America, Capital One, HSBC, Royal Bank of Canada and BOK.

Even though the OCC said their review of the banks will not become publicly disclosed, its spokesman told American Banker that before Wells Fargo was made to answer for its employee’s misconduct, not many financial institutions recognized that risk governance was needed in the sales arena.

Unauthorized Accounts Not Just a Wells Fargo Problem

The financial world is as competitive as any other business, which means the incentive for employees to bend the rules exists there, too. Even short-term sales promotions can wreak havoc in the consumer’s financial realm if an overly ambitious employee doesn’t have supervision and guidance to prevent opening a new account that is merely offered to a customer and not actually authorized by that customer.

Human error without malice also may be a factor. If account opening and closing policies within a bank lend themselves to shortcuts, there’s more room for human error.

After Wells Fargo reached a $142 million settlement over the unauthorized account creations, some banks began to make efforts to ensure a customer actually authorized a new account. Still, it’s virtually impossible to verify every bank account, savings account or credit card that every single employee creates.

If you believe TD Bank or any other bank opened unauthorized accounts on your behalf, you could qualify for this free bank lawsuit investigation.

If you notice you’re incurring overdraft fees that you don’t believe you should have, you might be a victim of the opening of an unauthorized account. Wells Fargo employees allegedly took funds out of customer’s accounts to open new unauthorized accounts without the customers knowing it.

In addition to the creation of unauthorized accounts, some banks might offer incentives to employees who convince current customers to switch to a different checking account plan that results in the bank collecting more fees. One customer noticed a charge of nearly $30 on her account statement. When she asked the bank about it, she was told her account now belonged to a tier of checking accounts that necessitated a $5,000 minimum balance or fees would be charged. She said she didn’t pursue an account change, nor did she authorize such a change.

If you believe you might be the victim of a bank such as TD Bank opening unauthorized accounts in your name, you could be eligible to participate in this unauthorized accounts class action lawsuit investigation.