On Thursday, August 30th, Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE:$WFC) surpassed over a million accounts that were opened without customers’ knowledge.

This morning, Wells Fargo reported their findings after hiring a third party to a thorough investigation examining accounts dated back to 2009. In addition to customers who appear to have had consumer and small business accounts opened without permission or knowledge, the report uncovered about 528,000 unauthorized online bill pay enrollments. The bank plans to return $2.8 million to those who experienced the former scenario, and $910,000 to the latter.

Current Situation:

• Wells Fargo shares were down 0.8% in the early afternoon trading, underperforming S&P Financial, which was flat
• Wells Fargo is also facing several regulatory probes and private lawsuits

This year-long scandal at the San Francisco bank has been overdrawn, to say the least. Analyst Jaret Seiberg states: “Every disclosure seems to expand the scope of the bank’s troubles. We believe the political and regulatory spotlight will continue to shine brightly on Wells Fargo.”

There is a question whether Wells Fargo’s health growth will be limited due to such public scandal.

The first incident of its kind was filed last September, with Wells Fargo reaching a $190 million settlement with regulators. As a result, Wells Fargo Chief Executive John Stumpf departed the company. Tim Sloan, a long-praised sales tycoon by Wall street, took Stumpf’s place to revive the bank’s tainted reputation.

While Wells plans to refund all customers who experienced wrongdoing, the bank is less worried about the hard costs than the irrevocable degradation of the bank’s once pristine brand.

The bank’s largest investor, Warren Buffett, sold some of his holdings earlier this week while insisting that he still thinks the bank has great potential. 

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