I would personally like to see the CPFB have the power to sue banks on behalf of customers to get financial redress. This money needs to get back to the people who suffered the most.
Hell, paying only $3.7B with a pinky promise you won't do it again would still be profitable if you made $5B on the scheme.
My reading of the article is different. This reads as though $2bn of the $3.7bn was to go directly to the consumers whom Wells Fargo harmed:
a $3.7 billion settlement with federal regulators, including a record $1.7 billion fine [...] The agreement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau includes more than $2 billion in “redress to consumers” [...] The CFPB is ordering Wells Fargo to refund billions of dollars to consumers across the country. Wells Fargo had systematic failures in its servicing of automobile loans that resulted in $1.3 billion in harm across more than 11 million accounts.
Specifically, Wells Fargo will have to pay:
More than $1.3 billion in consumer redress for affected auto lending accounts.
More than $500 million in consumer redress for affected deposit accounts, including $205 million for illegal surprise overdraft fees.
Nearly $200 million in consumer redress for affected mortgage servicing accounts.
This very same thing happens with the SEC - they just keep the fines. How do people not think this is robbery is beyond me.