Attorney General Says Wells Fargo & Co. Has Agreed to Enhanced Consumer Protections and to Change Practices For Handling Subpoenas

(HARTFORD) – Attorney General George Jepsen said today that Wells Fargo & Co. has changed its practices for handling subpoenas containing personal information of more than one person and has agreed to enhanced consumer protections for those customers whose information was disclosed.

“Wells has acted quickly to correct its error and to protect those individuals who may have been harmed as a result,” Attorney General Jepsen said. “This situation should alert other businesses entrusted with Social Security numbers of the need to protect them from improper disclosure.”

The significant enhancements were the result of negotiations with the Office of the Attorney General, which contacted the bank last month for an explanation about why it may have disclosed the Social Security numbers of customers when it sent them copies of subpoenas issued by the state Department of Social Services as part of a fraud investigation.

Wells confirmed that it did disclose sensitive personal information when it mailed out a copy of the subpoena to those customers named in the document. DSS was seeking financial records to determine whether some state employees falsified financial information on applications submitted for D-SNAP benefits. Neither Connecticut nor federal law required Wells to disclose DSS’s subpoenas to customers whose records were sought.

For those whose information was disclosed to others, Wells agreed to provide two years of credit monitoring, identity theft insurance and security freeze reimbursement. Wells customers will receive a letter from Wells with enrollment information, as well as instructions for receiving reimbursement for the costs of placing and lifting security freezes. Non-Wells customers will receive the same letter, but from the Department of Social Services.

Wells also agreed to notify customers who received the subpoena about the need to destroy it. Additionally, Wells will now redact personal information of all people named in a subpoena other than the Wells customer to whom notification is being sent.

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