Wells Fargo Settles With Bank After Employee Spread Rumors

Wells Fargo Bank has reached a settlement with a small Antioch bank after a Wells Fargo employee spread rumors that the other bank was in financial trouble, the San Francisco Chronicle has reported.

The employee told about 20 East County Bank customers that their bank was about to go under and invited them to switch to Wells Fargo, a banking source told the newspaper.

Spreading false information about a bank is illegal and punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

San Francisco-based Wells Fargo said this week that it has “resolved the matter.” The bank’s monetary settlement of the incident forbade it to discuss details of the agreement, the newspaper said.

Wells Fargo stressed that a single employee was to blame. It refused to say whether the employee had been disciplined.

“This was an isolated incident,” a Wells Fargo official said. “It is never our intention to misrepresent information about any other financial institution.”