Wells Fargo & Co. is Ordered to Return $3.4 Million to Customers

It was a bad day for Wells Fargo but a victorious day for Wells Fargo customers on Monday.

A brokerage industry regulator has ordered the bank to pay back $3.4 million to its customers after it had sold them inappropriate investment products.

According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, also known as FINRA, Wells Fargo had sold risky exchange-traded products (ETPS) from July of 2010 to May of 2012 to a minimum of 1,300 accounts that had moderate and
conservative risk profiles.

According to the regulator, the consumer bank also failed to make sure that its brokers took out the products from customer accounts within the 30 day period.

It was in 2012 of May that the bank recognized the problem and began to correct it.

FINRA says Wells Fargo failed to implement the products correctly and violated two securities rules.

A Wells Fargo spokeswoman Shea Leordeanu commented, “In cooperating fully with FINRA, we have made significant policy and supervision changes, including the discontinuation of the ETPs in focus.”

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