U.S. Bancorp Fined $37.5 Million Over Sham-Account Allegations

U.S. Bancorp was fined $37.5 million by US regulators over allegations that its employees illegally accessed client information to open sham checking and savings accounts, credit cards and lines of credit without the customers’ permission.

The Minneapolis-based bank will be required to make affected customers whole by returning all unlawfully charged fees and costs, plus interest, in addition to paying the penalty to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency said in a statement Thursday. The lender’s sales goals pressured employees to open the fake accounts, and U.S. Bancorp “had inadequate procedures to prevent and detect these accounts,” the ...