Wells Fargo Now Says 3.5 Million Accounts Were Involved in the Scandal

It was last September that Wells Fargo had cited that 2.1 million accounts had been potentially opened without customers’ permission from the year 2009 to 2016. This number is now larger and according to the bank, it stands at 3.5 million accounts that were potentially opened.

On Thursday, Wells Fargo announced that almost half a million of the newly discovered accounts were opened between 2011 and 2015.

The Wells Fargo scandal rocked the nation last year when it was revealed that employees under pressure had been opening accounts that customers may not have even known existed.

The bank hired an outside consulting firm last year to analyze the 165 million retail bank accounts that been opened between 2009 and 2016. The firm had found that 981,000 more accounts had been found in the expanded timeline next to the original 2.1 million that were disclosed and also 450,000 accounts were found in the original window.

Wells Fargo has already paid $185 million to regulators and settled a class-action suit for $142 million.

“To rebuild trust and to build a better Wells Fargo, our first priority is to make things right for our customers, and the completion of this expanded third-party analysis is an important milestone,” new Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan said in a statement.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) and have not been compensated for this article.