Some Wells Fargo & Co. employees in a business banking unit allegedly changed information on the documents of their corporate customers, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Employees in Wells' wholesale unit, which is not a part of its retail bank, added social security numbers, addresses, dates of birth and other information to documents without their customers' knowledge, according to the Journal. Wells employees are supposed to adhere to specific regulatory processes that determine how information is inputted or obtained, the report noted.
According to the Journal, the bank has reported the issue to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which is looking into the matter.
The alleged incidents happened in 2017 and early 2018 as Wells was meeting a deadline for anti-money-laundering compliance.
Sandler O'Neill & Partners analyst Scott Siefers wrote in a research note that the development could hurt Wells' stock in the near term. Siefers also wrote, however, that it was good for Wells to have already reported the issues to the OCC. In addition, "no data left the company, no customers were impacted, and no products/services were sold as a result," Siefers wrote.
Siefers wrote that he remains hopeful that "issues such as this [morning's] disclosure are much closer to the end than the beginning." He maintained his "buy" rating and a 12-month price target of $64.
