Wells Fargo has announced it will commission an external, third-party racial equity audit. The bank said it expects to publish the results of the audit by the end of 2023.
“Commissioning this work is a critical next step in reinforcing our commitment to racial equity and closing the wealth gap in this country,” CEO Charlie Scharf said.
This is the latest in Wells Fargo efforts to fix its image following several controversies. The bank in 2020 agreed to pay $3 billion to settle investigations by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission into its long-running fake accounts scandal.
Back in March, a class action suit was brought against Wells Fargo for “modern day redlining” due to claims that its data and algorithms inhibited black borrowers from refinancing mortgage loans.
Additionally, the New York Times reported in June that the company is at the center of a criminal investigation regarding whether it violated federal laws by conducting fake job interviews with women and people of color for positions that had already been promised to other people.