Wells Fargo agreed to a $3.7 billion deal with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over consumer abuses.

Wells Fargo agreed to a $3.7 billion settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in connection with customer abuses including checking accounts, mortgages, and auto loans, some of which occurred as recently as this year.

According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the business was compelled to pay a record $1.7 billion civil penalty and more than $2 billion to customers with 16 million accounts. In a separate statement, the San Francisco-based bank stated that many of the "necessary measures" associated with the settlement had already been done.

"The bank's illegal conduct caused billions of dollars in financial harm to its consumers, as well as the loss of vehicles and homes for thousands of customers," the agency said in a statement. "Consumers were unjustly levied fees and interest charges on auto and mortgage loans, had their automobiles wrongfully repossessed, and the bank misapplied payments to auto and mortgage loans."

The CFPB's investigation reveals that Wells Fargo had issues servicing clients well before the 2016 incident involving millions of bogus accounts. Unlike rivals JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, Wells Fargo, the fourth-largest bank in the United States by assets, has a very tiny Wall Street business, which means that average Americans are its bread-and-butter customers.

Some of these problems persisted until recently. According to a settlement agreement, the bank misapplied vehicle loan payments and made other irregularities from "at least 2011 through 2022," some of which resulted in improper auto repossessions. The bank also made mistakes in mortgage modification applications from 2011 to 2018, according to the CFPB.