WFC Wells Fargo and Company

By Will Feuer

Wells Fargo has agreed to pay $35 million to settle charges that some of the bank's financial advisers charged excessive fees.

Wells Fargo also has paid affected account holders about $40 million, including interest, to reimburse them for the overcharging, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said.

"The process that caused this issue was corrected nearly a decade ago," Wells Fargo said in a statement. "And, as noted in the settlement documents, Wells Fargo Advisors conducted a thorough review of accounts and has fully reimbursed affected customers."

Wells Fargo overcharged more than 10,900 investment advisory accounts by more than $26.8 million in advisory fees through the end of last year, the SEC said.

Some financial advisers from Wells Fargo and its predecessor firms had agreed to reduce fees for certain clients, but the agreed-upon reduced fees were never entered into the firm's billing systems, the SEC said. The issue affected certain clients who opened accounts before 2014 through the end of 2022.

"For years, Wells Fargo and its predecessor firms negotiated reduced advisory fees with thousands of clients, but failed to honor them, overcharging those clients millions of dollars as a result," said Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC's enforcement division.

Write to Will Feuer at Will.Feuer@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 25, 2023 09:51 ET (13:51 GMT)

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