Wells Fargo's new accounts still falling after scandal

NEW YORK — Wells Fargo (WFC) is still seeing a slowdown in activity at branches nationwide as it tries to recover from a scandal over its sales practices.

The bank said Friday that the number of new checking accounts opened fell 31 percent in January from a year ago, and applications for credit cards were down 47 percent. Branch bankers had 14 percent fewer interactions with customers.

There are signs of stabilization, though. While checking and credit cards applications and traffic were all down from a year earlier, they were up or stable compared to December.

The San Francisco-based bank has restructured its compensation structure for branch employees since it was discovered employees trying to meet ambitious sales targets opened up to 2 million bank and credit card accounts without customer authorization.