America's third largest bank by assets (US$1.95 trillion) has agreed to pay large penalties to various authorities over allegations that its employees opened accounts for retail customers and transferred their money without their knowledge on an industrial scale for a decade-and-a-half.

Between 2002 and 2017, Wells Fargo bank offered financial banking products and servies to consumers which included current ('checking') accounts, credit cards, unsecured lines of credit and online bill pay services. Over these years, the authorities allege, Wells Fargo's sales goals and pay incentives induced its employees to sell products and services improperly and thereby enrich themselves. They say that Wells Fargo's managers failed to prevent bank staff from:

• opening accounts for customers without their knowledge or approval;
• transferring funds between customers' accounts without their knowledge, still less their consent;
• applying for credit cards without their customers' knowledge;
• issuing debit cards without their customers' knowledge;
• enrolling customers into online banking services, including online bill-paying services, without their knowledge or consent;
• submitting renters insurance and/or simplified term life insurance policy applications to various insurance carriers and submitting payments for such insurance from customers' accounts without those customers' knowledge; and
• lying to customers about accounts and insurance referral products.

Wells Fargo Bank has identified more than 3½ million accounts and 528,000 online bill pay enrollments that may have resulted from improper sales practices. It has identified or notified customers who may have been affected and is providing them with compensation, including but not limited to its payment of $142 million to settle a class-action lawsuit.

The result has been a settlement agreement, made on 28 December, by and between the attorneys-general of all 50 American states (plus Washington DC) who claim that Wells Fargo had broken the consumer protection laws of their states. The settlement agreement does not constitute an admission of fact or guilt by Wells Fargo. The banking giant has promised to - or has already - paid compensation (or 'remediation') to consumers in excess of $600 million through a nationwide class action settlement and through agreements with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.

According to the agreement, Wells Fargo is to pay an aggregate amount of $575 million to the signatory attorneys general within ten days of receiving written payment processing instructions from each one of them. Readers might not be surprised to learn that the largest payment ($148 million) goes to California (where Wells Fargo's headquarters are) and the smallest ($1,112,853) goes to Washington DC.