Negativity in Wells Fargo shares continues

The scope of Wells Fargo's fake accounts scandal grew significantly on Thursday, with the bank now saying that 3.5 million accounts were potentially opened without customers' permission between 2009 and 2016.

That's up from 2.1 million accounts that the bank had cited in September 2016, when it acknowledged that employees under pressure to meet aggressive sales targets had opened accounts that customers might not have even been aware existed. People may have had different kinds of accounts in their names, so the number of customers affected may differ from the account total.

The scandal was the biggest in Wells Fargo's history. It cost then-CEO John Stumpf his job, and the bank's once-sterling industry reputation was in tatters. The company ended up paying $185 million to regulators and settled a class-action suit for $142 million.

New managers have been trying to amends with customers, politicians and the public.

In addition, San Francisco-based Wells admitted that 528,000 customers were likely signed up for online bill payment without authorization. It'll refund $910,000 in fees to those customers.

Since last fall, Wells has changed its sales practices, ousted other executives and called tens of millions of customers to check on whether they truly opened the accounts.

The company's shares are at key support levels, and if the price falls below $50.75, it's likely to follow a mass sale and a devaluation of about $43.

Source: Bloomberg Pro Terminal

Jr Trader Ivan Ivanov

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