Wells Fargo & Co. has agreed to pay at least $37 million to settle accusations that it and Wachovia Corp., which Wells acquired in 2008, paid kickbacks to win business from municipal governments.
In its regular quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, made Tuesday, the San Francisco bank said it would pay the greater of the $37 million or "65% of the restitution amount of a future settlement, if any, with the various state attorneys general of their investigation of Wachovia."
The agreement, which Wells said was reached Oct. 21, stems from litigation with various municipal governments around the country and consolidated in a federal lawsuit in Manhattan.
The suit accused many investment banks of conspiring to rig the bidding process, “sharing their illegal gains through kickbacks to one another, and making other secret, undisclosed arrangements.”
A Wells spokeswoman said the case mainly involved events at Wachovia that occurred before Wells took over the Charlotte, N.C., bank.
Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and UBS previously agreed to much larger settlements in the case.
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-- E. Scott Reckard
Photo: A Wells Fargo stagecoach in the bank's history museum in L.A. Source: Wells Fargo & Co.
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