By Christopher S. Rugaber and Derek Kravitz
AP Economics Writers
WASHINGTON (AP) — Wells Fargo & Co. has agreed to pay $85 million to settle civil charges that it falsified loan documents and pushed borrowers toward subprime mortgages with higher interest rates during the housing boom.
The fine is the largest ever imposed by the Federal Reserve in a consumer-enforcement case, according to the central bank.
Wells Fargo, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
The bank agreed to compensate borrowers who were steered into higher-priced loans or whose income was exaggerated.
The Fed said a unit of Wells Fargo inflated borrowers’ incomes on loan documents to qualify for mortgages they otherwise couldn’t afford from 2004 until 2008.
Sales personnel also pushed borrowers toward higher-interest, subprime loans, even though they were eligible for lower-interest mortgages, the central bank said.
Between 3,700 and roughly 10,000 people could be compensated under the settlement, the Fed said. The payments will likely range from $1,000 to $20,000.
The loans were issued by Wells Fargo Financial Inc., a subsidiary of the bank that closed in July 2010, the bank said.
“The alleged actions committed by a relatively small group of team members are not what we stand for at Wells Fargo,” said Chairman and CEO John Stumpf in a statement. The bank has already paid restitution to about 600 customers, it said.
The alleged actions by Wells Fargo are similar to accusations made against many subprime lenders during the housing boom.
Hundreds of those smaller lenders went bankrupt when the housing market collapsed in 2007.
Millions of homeowners who took on subprime loans during the housing boom have since lost their homes to foreclosure.
Attorneys general in all 50 states and the District of Columbia are jointly investigating whether lenders cut corners and improperly handled hundreds of thousands of foreclosure cases over the past several years.
Many lenders, including Bank of America, temporarily halted their foreclosure cases in October after allegations surfaced that employees signed but didn’t read documents that may have contained errors.
Wells Fargo also admitted it had made mistakes in thousands of foreclosure cases and promised to fix them. But it did not stop its foreclosures
Both lenders say they’re fixing the problems.
In April, more than a dozen lenders and servicers singled out by the Federal Reserve were ordered to hire independent auditors to figure how many homeowners may have been improperly foreclosed upon in 2009 and 2010.
As part of agreements, the financial firms will “remediate all financial injury to borrowers caused by any errors, misrepresentations, or other deficiencies.”
Federal regulators and state attorneys general are meeting with banks to try and strike a settlement that will significantly change the mortgage industry, forcing lenders to modify more mortgages and provide greater protections for borrowers. A final agreement is not expected for several months.
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