The Department of Labor and other U.S. federal agencies are investigating Wells Fargo’s 401(k) plan, according to news reports.
The agencies are “reviewing certain transactions associated with the employee stock ownership plan feature of the company’s 401(k) plan, including the manner in which the 401(k) plan purchased certain securities used in connection with the company’s contributions to the 401(k) plan,” according to a Wells Fargo regulatory filing cited by Reuters and Bloomberg. Wells Fargo declined comment to Bloomberg beyond the contents of the filing.
Wells Fargo has been in regulators’ crosshairs for several years now, following 2016 revelations that thousands of its retail bank clients opened millions of customer accounts without customer authorization.
But the company has been gradually building up its reputation: In February 2020, Wells Fargo reached a $3 billion settlement with the U.S. Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission over the bogus account scandal, as reported.
And last month, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency lifted its 2015 consent order over questionable practices in the firm’s banking business related to third-party products for identity theft protection and debt cancellation, as reported.
Nonetheless, Wells Fargo is still under a $1.95 trillion asset cap placed on the firm by the Federal Reserve, as well as under a separate OCC consent order over sales of mortgage and auto-insurance products.
Moreover, Wells is at the center of an independent review of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority the self-regulator initiated last week in the wake of a Georgia judge ruling that Wells and its counsel “manipulated the Finra arbitrator selection process,” as reported.
Do you have a news tip you’d like to share with FA-IQ? Email us at editorial@financialadvisoriq.com.
Source: financialadvisoriq.com
