Wells Fargo's Latest Scandal: What You Need To Know

Wells Fargo & Co WFC is embroiled in a new scandal — this time relating to its business banking unit, The Wall Street Journal reported.

What Happened

Wells Fargo dominated headlines when the company fraudulently created fake accounts for banking customers.

Now, Wells Fargo's business banking unit allegedly changed information on customers' documents without their knowledge, the Journal said. 

The actions include changing Social Security numbers, addresses, date and birthdays in 2017 and earlier this year, according to the Journal's sources. Employees involved were trying to comply with a deadline as part of the bank's anti-money laundering controls, the report said. 

Why It's Important

Wells Fargo's latest scandal could be of concern to investors after the Federal Reserve capped the bank's ability to grow amid inadequate risk controls. The sanctions put in place were originally expected to be removed by the end of September, but a more likely outcome would be the sanctions staying in place until the first half of 2019, according to WSJ. 

What's Next

A Wells Fargo spokesperson told WSJ that while it doesn't comment on regulatory matters, the matter "involves documents used for internal purposes. No customers were negatively impacted, no data left the company and no products or services were sold as a result."

The bank said it has since enacted "more robust" internal controls, and if any wrongdoing is uncovered, the company is ready to "take swift action to correct."

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