Wells Fargo admits that 545 owners were wrongly seized, he should have helped

Wells Fargo acknowledged Tuesday that, due to a miscalculation, 545 distressed homeowners had been seized after asking for help to settle their mortgage.

In total, 870 homeowners were denied the assistance for which they were qualified, with more than half having lost their homes thereafter, Wells Fargo said.

This recognition will certainly increase the pressure on the San Francisco-based bank, which is struggling to repair its image after a series of missteps. He has already paid more than $ 1 billion in fines to various regulators for opening fictitious accounts that people did not want and for taking over thousands of cars.

Wells Fargo has repeatedly apologized for his missteps but has yet to convince many lawmakers, including Democrats who have called his CEO, Tim Sloan, to testify again about the actions of the bank. The US central bank is also instructed not to exceed $ 2 trillion worth of assets until it attacks its various problems.

In that case, Wells Fargo said that an internal review had revealed that the bank had refused to help hundreds of homeowners after the fees charged by the foreclosure lawyers had been misused when the bank had decided who to offer help. The problem began in 2010 and was only corrected last April, the bank said.

The revelation echoes the complaints of thousands of borrowers in the years following the financial crisis, that banks were stingy to offer help to explode their loans.

"It's really amazing that it took so long to find these problems and it's not at all clear that this is the end of the problem." A distressed homeowner deserves better, "said Alys Cohen, Lawyer at the National Consumer Law Center. . "Why do not we know more about how this has happened and where do the regulators ensure that the owners are fully compensated?"

Wells Fargo initially revealed the problem in August and announced a $ 8 million reserve, or about $ 12,800 per customer, to solve the problem. But on Tuesday, he increased the number of people who, in his opinion, were affected after a thorough review. A "substantial majority" of borrowers have already been contacted and will be offered a "refurbishment", said the bank.

The bank did not specify how much money, if any, it planned to set aside to compensate additional borrowers.

"This effort to identify other cases in which customers may have suffered harm is ongoing and it is possible that we identify other areas of potential concern," said the bank in a filed document. with the SEC.