Wells Fargo warned late last week that a deeper dive into its sales practices raises the possibility for a “significant increase in the identified number of potentially unauthorized accounts” — including, potentially, a further dip in Wells Fargo’s stocks.
Citing a 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Seeking Alpha reported news that the bank said the increased fake accounts could result in legal costs that exceed the amount it had set aside.
“We do not expect any incremental customer remediation costs as a result of these efforts to have a significant financial impact on the company,” Wells Fargo added, according to the report.
Wells Fargo also said it’s adding three more years to the review period that covered May of 2011 to the middle of 2015. The expansion was so that the consent order, which calls for the period to be from January of 2011 to September of 2016, would be covered. The report noted the bank is also looking at accounts from 2009 to 2010.
Last year, Wells Fargo was the subject of a huge scandal in which employees had opened a slew of fake accounts in the retail banking units. That resulted in a record fine, the ousting of key executives — including the CEO — and an overhaul of the corporate culture at the company. The scandal has also hurt Wells Fargo’s stock price and reputation.
The latest revelation comes as the embattled bank is facing calls from lawmakers to oust board members after a new incident of fraud, in which customers complained Wells Fargo charged them for auto insurance they didn’t want or need.
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren recently asked Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen to remove members of Wells Fargo’s board. In a letter obtained by Reuters, Warren said further improper, fraudulent actions by the bank showed there were “deep risk management problems.” The lawmaker called for all board members who served from 2011 to 2015 to be removed.
Warren isn’t the only who wants change in the wake of what could be a new scandal. Reuters also reported New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer requested the bank replace chairman Stephen Sanger, saying the board at the bank needed to be overhauled.
OpenAI’s CEO says the generative artificial intelligence (AI) startup has reached approximately 800 million people.
“Something like 10% of the world uses our systems, now a lot,” said Sam Altman, whose comments at a Friday (April 11) TED 2025 event were reported by Seeking Alpha.
Host Chris Anderson pointed out that Altman had said his company’s user base was growing rapidly, doubling in a “just a few weeks.”
The report noted that OpenAI’s growth has been helped along by viral features like the ability to generate images and videos in a range of styles, such as that of legendary Japanese animation studio, Studio Ghibli.
Last month, Altman said the company, maker of ChatGPT, had added a million users in one hour. Asked during the TED event if the company had considered compensating artists for creating works in their style, Altman said there could be prompts that could trigger payments for specific artists.
“I think it would be cool to figure out a new model where if you say, ‘I want to do it in the name of this artist,’ and they opt in, there’s a revenue model there,” Altman said.
Altman added the company had guidelines to prevent the AI model from generating images in the styles of specific artists or creators. He also discussed the company’s work on AI agents, models that can operate autonomously on behalf of users.
In other AI news, PYMNTS wrote last week about ways the technology can help companies hoping to alleviate the cost of new tariffs. While those levies will eat into the bottom line of many businesses, AI can help reduce costs while ensuring productivity stays up.
Research by PYMNTS Intelligence has shown that 82% of workers who use generative AI at least weekly say it increases productivity, even though half of these workers also worry that AI would replace them at their jobs.
“AI can also facilitate material selection by assessing availability, compliance and cost implications, which helps brands find substitute materials when needed without compromising on quality or compliance with regulatory standards,” said Tarun Chandrasekhar, president and CPO at Syndigo.
Still, Pierre Laprée, chief product officer of SpendHQ, told PYMNTS that while AI has a part to play, it’s “misguided” to believe that AI will automatically offset rising costs from shifts in trade policy.
“Tariffs are complex, and so is procurement,” he said. “You need more than an algorithm — you need clean, structured, specific data. Without that, AI won’t reduce risk. It will amplify it.”
