U.S. regulators are preparing to sanction Wells Fargo for receiving commissions on auto insurance policies it helped force on more than half a million drivers, people with direct knowledge of the probes told Reuters.

In July, Wells Fargo blamed a third-party vendor for wrongly layering insurance policies on its auto borrowers. Wells Fargo did not explain that it received payouts when those policies were written.
The fact that Wells Fargo stood to profit from the insurance program will form the backbone of fresh sanctions against the bank, said people with knowledge of the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly.
Those penalties would be the latest in a long-running scandal over how the nation’s third-largest lender treated its customers.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Wells Fargo’s primary regulator, is asking the bank which executives knew about the payments and whether they should have been stopped sooner, said the sources.
Wells Fargo does not comment on regulatory matters, Wells Fargo spokeswoman Catherine Pulley said. The bank received commissions from insurance partners in a program ended in 2013, she said.

Wells Fargo’s auto insurance woes stem from a policy drivers must carry when they borrow money to buy a new car. It pays out to the bank when a car is stolen or destroyed.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-w...-idUSKCN1GR0G3