Las Vegas Sun

April 26, 2024

Wells Fargo faces lawsuits, angry lawmakers over car lending

NEW YORK — Wells Fargo is now facing at least three lawsuits from customers who say they were hurt by the bank's latest scandal, over how it operated its auto lending business.

The bank admitted last week that roughly 570,000 customers were signed up for car insurance that they did not need. Many couldn't afford both the car payment and the extra insurance, which made them fall behind in payments. At least in 20,000 cases, cars were repossessed.

Politicians are also angry with Wells, with Democrats calling for a Congressional investigation.

The bank had faced bipartisan outrage after admitting last fall that employees opened as many as 2 million accounts without getting customers' permission to meet sales targets. It paid $185 million to regulators and settled a class-action suit for $142 million.