Chart: The Cost of Wells Fargo's Sales Scandal

When news broke last year that thousands of Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) employees opened 2 million checking and credit card accounts for customers without the customers' authorization to do so, the bank's former CEO, John Stumpf, claimed that the scandal wouldn't have a material impact on Wells Fargo's financial performance.

He was basing this view, it seemed, on the $185 million in fines that the nation's third biggest bank forked over to regulators on account of the scandal. That's a lot of money, but it's a fraction of Wells Fargo's quarterly earnings, which regularly top $5.5 billion.

John Stumpf, the former chairman and CEO of Wells Fargo. Image source: Wells Fargo.

Source: Fool.com