The top U.S. watchdog for consumer finance is seeking a record fine against Wells Fargo & Co. that could exceed several hundred million dollars for auto insurance and mortgage lending abuses, according to three sources with knowledge of the plans.
The penalty would be the first issued by Mick Mulvaney, whom President Donald Trump selected in November to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
The fine would fulfill Trump's vow to come down hard on the country's third-largest lender, which has been grappling with a sales practices scandal since September 2016.
The CFPB is readying sanctions alongside the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Wells Fargo's day-to-day regulator. The agencies are ready to sanction Wells Fargo for layering extra insurance on drivers and collecting commissions on those policies, Reuters reported last month.
Both agencies have also been investigating the bank for wrongly levying fees on mortgage borrowers.
Mulvaney is eyeing a penalty that would settle both those matters and dwarf the $100 million the CFPB fined Wells Fargo in September 2016 to settle its phony accounts scandal, said the sources familiar with the talks. That 2016 fine had been the CFPB's largest ever.
Settlement terms have not been finalized but Mulvaney is pushing for a figure as high as $1 billion, said three people with knowledge of the discussions.
A stiff penalty against Wells Fargo could burnish Mulvaney's image as a tough regulator even as his agency has dropped cases against at least two payday lenders.
