Gov’t: US Bank workers opened fake accounts for sales goals

By KEN SWEET AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — For more than a decade, US Bank pressured its employees to open fake accounts in their customers’ names in order to meet unrealistic sales goals, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Thursday, in a case that is deeply similar to the sales practices scandal uncovered at Wells Fargo last decade.

The CFPB alleged that US Bank accessed consumers’ credit reports to open checking and savings accounts, credit cards, and lines of credit without their permission.

Employees were encouraged to do so, in order to meet the bank’s goals of selling multiple products to each customer with the bank.