The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently accused Wells Fargo Clearing Services LLC and Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network LLC of charging more than $26.8 million in advisory fees to more than 10,900 investment advisory accounts.。

Wells Fargo says it agreed to pay $35 million in civil penalties to settle SEC charges。

Under the SEC order, certain financial advisors at Wells Fargo and its predecessor companies agreed to reduce the standard consulting fees that the company presets for certain clients and to make handwritten or printed changes to clients' investment advisory agreements to reduce their account opening fees.。

However, in some cases, Wells Fargo and its predecessor company's account processing employees failed to enter the agreed reduced consulting rate into the company's billing system when setting up customer accounts。

In addition, Wells Fargo failed to adopt and implement reasonably designed written compliance policies and procedures to determine whether the billing system it uses contains accurate data and prevent the company from obtaining excess billing through its predecessor companies and certain new customers of its own。

As a result, Wells Fargo and its predecessor companies charged consulting fees to certain customers who opened accounts before 2014 as of the end of December 2022.。

Wells Fargo paid about $40 million (including interest) to affected account holders to compensate them for overpayments。

Without admitting or denying the SEC charges, in addition to the $35 million fine, Wells Fargo accepted an SEC order finding that the company violated sections 206 (2) and 206 (4) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and Rule 206 (4) -7 and agreed to a cease-and-desist order and censure.。