Wells Fargo fine of up to $1B said weighed by Mulvaney

The top U.S. consumer finance regulatory agency is seeking a record fine against Wells Fargo that could exceed several hundred million dollars for auto insurance and mortgage lending abuses, Reuters reported on Monday.

The penalty would be the first issued by Mick Mulvaney since President Donald Trump appointed him in November to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Mulvaney is pushing for a figure as high as $1 billion, three people with knowledge of the discussions told Reuters. He has said that the CFPB has gone too far in policing the financial industry in the past but that abuses do exist.

The CFPB is preparing sanctions alongside the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The agencies are ready to sanction Wells Fargo for layering extra insurance on drivers and collecting commissions on those policies, Reuters reported last month.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
WFC	WELLS FARGO & CO.	77.19	-0.12	-0.16%

Both agencies have also been investigating the bank for wrongly levying fees on mortgage borrowers.

A Wells Fargo spokeswoman declined to comment. The CFPB did not return a request for comment from FOX Business.

In September 2016, the CFPB fined Wells Fargo $100 million to settle its phony accounts scandal. That fine had been the agency's largest ever, according to Reuters.