(Reuters) - A Wells Fargo & Co (N:WFC) unit will pay $8.5 million to California and five of the state's counties to settle charges that it violated customers' privacy due to not disclosing in a timely fashion that it was recording their calls.
Wells Fargo Bank broke California's privacy laws, which require notifying customers at the start of a phone call that they are being recorded, California Attorney General Kamala Harris said in a statement on Tuesday about the state's civil case against the company.
The period during which the violations occurred is unclear.
Wells Fargo informs customers that calls are being recorded, a company spokesman said in a statement. Wells has put procedures in place to ensure that disclosures about recording occur at the beginning of the call, the spokesman said.
The bank neither admitted nor denied liability, Harris said.