This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.

Employees at Royal Bank of Canada may be able to help an investigation if they have evidence that employees were pressured to open a fake RBC account to meet sales goals.

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is one of several financial institutions that private consumer rights attorneys are investigating for potentially driving its employees to meet unrealistic sales goals by using unauthorized sales practices, much like those instigated by Wells Fargo’s workers a few years ago.

Back in 2016, Wells Fargo employees allegedly created millions of fake bank accounts and fake credit card accounts in order to meet unrealistic sales goals set for them at the time. Managers even allegedly encouraged employees to embark on shady sales tactics. Some employees said they feared being fired if they didn’t meet the outlandish sales goals. At the very least, those who failed to meet the goals would not receive a bonus.

Wells Fargo ended up firing 5,300 employees for opening fake bank accounts and fake credit card accounts, but many employees said they felt they had no choice but to do so or lose their jobs. The Los Angeles Times reported that employees who did not meet their sales goals were forced to stay after hours or work extra days, and those who didn’t meet their sales goals for two months straight were terminated from their employment with Wells Fargo.

After finding out the Wells Fargo was occurring right in front of us, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency launched an investigation into 40 large and mid-size banks in the United States to gauge how likely it was that similar fraudulent accounts were being opened up at other financial institutions.

Despite the OCC’s reluctance to make its findings public, the federal agency did admit that its review found “weaknesses” at other financial institutions that prompted the creation of fake accounts without customer consent.

A former banker told CNNMoney that the issue was “an industry-wide problem” because the pressure to make sales is so great and competition is great among banks.

The OCC did not release the names of the banks that were part of its investigation, but it did say that the identified problems were already in the course of being corrected or had been corrected by closing unauthorized accounts, refunding customers and correcting financial credit bureau information.

RBC Account Creation

If you work at RBC and know that employees have opened a fake RBC account, you do have legal options to report the misbehavior and protect yourself in the process.

According to RBC’s report for the first quarter of 2019, the company’s goals include “to be the undisputed leader in financial services” in Canada, “to be the preferred partner to corporate, institutional and high net worth clients and their businesses” in the United States of America, and “to be a leading financial services partner valued for our expertise” throughout the world.

With more than 84,000 employees and 16 million clients worldwide, RBC is a huge financial machine with many moving parts. If you work at RBC and are aware of deviant sales behaviors, you may benefit from addressing your concerns with a qualified attorney.