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Beleaguered banking company Wells Fargo makes the headlines once again, as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) considers fining the financial company for its auto insurance and mortgage lending abuses.
Sources close to the matter told Reuters that CFPB head Mick Mulvaney is looking to charge Wells Fargo a penalty larger than the $100 million the CFPB previously fined the company in September 2016 in connection to a phony accounts scandal. The sources also mentioned that Mulvaney is pushing for a penalty as high as $1 billion, though settlement terms have not been finalized.
The 2016 fine CFPB previously levied upon Wells Fargo had been the agency’s largest ever; however, Mulvaney’s billion-dollar penalty could easily surpass that record. This penalty would also be the first issued by Mulvaney since his appointment by the Trump administration.
The CFPB has been working with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to prepare sanctions for Wells Fargo.
Both the OCC and Wells Fargo declined to comment on the possible billion-dollar penalty, Reuters reported. A spokesperson for the CFPB did not respond to a request for a comment.
