Seems Wells Fargo is having a harder and harder time convincing Americans to sign up for credit cards. In February, credit card applications at the bank plunged by 55%, the sharpest decline since last September’s horrendous fake account scandal.
In fact, Wells Fargo has suffered double-digit declines in regards to checking accounts and credit card applications EACH MONTH, since the fake account settlement.

“Regulators have said that Wells Fargo employees may have submitted as many as 565,000 credit card applications without customers’ knowledge or consent. Some of those fraudulent applications hurt customers’ credit scores, while others led to needless fees. Wells Fargo refunded inappropriate fees and has promised to help those whose credit scores were dinged.

Wells Fargo’s reputation was tarnished by the settlement and allegations of mistreating employees, including whistleblowers who tried to stop the illegal activity.”

Though the bank has tried hard to restore trust with customers, it hasn’t yet worked, something is still off. When the February plunge in credit card applications was worse than the 50% decline Wells Fargo experienced in October during the height of the scandal, they attempted to blame things on the fact that last month had fewer days than February 2016 (a leap year). But that didn’t explain the 1 percent drop in stocks on Monday.
They clearly have more work to do to convince people to bring their business back.
Though the bank isn’t suffering from a mass exodus of people and product usage, the scandal did hurt the bank’s business by increasing expenses; they are spending $40 million to $50 million each quarter on lawyers, consultants, and other outside professionals.
And in order to offset those costs (and respond to the rise of online banking) earlier this year, Wells Fargo announced plans to shut down more than 400 branches by the end of 2018.

Source: CNN Money