Other major banks to face on-site reviews of their sales practices

To ensure that Wells Fargo & Co.’s scandal over unauthorized customer accounts isn’t being repeated at other lenders, regulators are poised to start reviewing data and talking to employees inside the biggest U.S. banks, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Wells Fargo’s largest competitors have received regulators’ formal requests for information and have been preparing for their practices to be scrutinized by examiners in the coming days, said the person, who requested anonymity because the process isn’t public.

Banks including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America have already been looking internally for any activities similar to those at Wells Fargo. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a frontline regulator of banks, is working with other agencies — including the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — to ensure no other lenders have maintained sales practices that encourage the opening of accounts without authorization by customers.

Bryan Hubbard, a spokesman for the comptroller’s office, confirmed that the review process has begun.

Consumer bureau Director Richard Cordray said his agency will “follow up aggressively” with the rest of the industry but indicated at the Senate hearing that he doesn’t expect to find the same level of problems as at Wells Fargo.