After the fictitious accounts, Wells Fargo affected by a car insurance scandal

After the fictitious accounts deal, Wells Fargo is affected by a new scandal: the California bank says more than half a million of its customers have paid unnecessary insurance premiums on their car loans.

"Wells Fargo has re-examined the policies put in place between 2012 and 2017 and has identified about 570,000 clients who may have been affected," she said in a statement.

They "will be repaid and will receive additional compensation payments," adds the institution, whose largest shareholder is billionaire Warren Buffett.

The total amount of compensation is $ 80 million, of which $ 64 million will be paid directly to affected clients and $ 16 million will consist of an adjustment to their bank accounts.

This new case concerns collateral protection insurance (CPI), ie insurance that consumers are forced to take by financial institutions when they take out auto loans.

The objective is to protect financial institutions throughout the life of the loan, any difficulties encountered by the borrower and the loss of value of the vehicle.

Following receipt of client complaints in July 2016, Wells Fargo, which has sometimes taken out these assurances on behalf of its clients from third parties, said that they had examined them and had concluded that "internal controls were inadequate."

"As a result, customers were able to get premiums even though they were paying insurance for their vehicle and in some cases the levying of these premiums resulted in a defect, which led to the vehicle being seized ".

On Wall Street, the share lost nearly 3% on Friday.

This case is indeed a blow to Wells Fargo, which seeks to draw a line on the scandal of the opening of two million fictitious accounts between May 2002 and April 2017, having allowed its employees to receive bonuses.

After the discovery of these embezzlements in September 2016, 5,300 employees were dismissed and Wells Fargo was fined $ 185 million. John Stumpf, CEO at the time of the scandal, resigned.