Let me just link to Matt Levine's take: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-09-09/wells-fargo-opened-a-couple-million-fake-accounts https://www.bloombe

Let me just link to Matt Levine's take: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-09-09/wells-fargo-opened-a-couple-million-fake-accounts https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-09-09/wells-far.... TL/DR: The bank probably didn't benefit on net from the fraud, even before the fines. This is more a case of management setting unreasonable sales goals and creating a terrible work environment than a conspiracy to commit fraud against bank customers.