WELLS’ APPLE BITE

NYC weighs split

New York to Wells Fargo: fuhgeddaboudit!

New York City is the latest state or city to consider cutting business ties with the embattled San Francisco banking giant in the wake of a sham-accounts scandal that exploded in September, The Post has learned.

Wells Fargo inked a contract with New York’s Department of Finance earlier this year to process creditcard transactions.

The deal runs from July 1 to June 30, 2021.

Wells Fargo will pocket $1.3 million a year under the deal, according to a copy of the paperwork obtained by The Post.

But on Dec. 29, the city put it up for “negotiated acquisition,” according to a public hearing notice.

The Finance Department’s lawyers may have “made a determination that such notice may disclose litigation strategy or otherwise impair the conduct of litigation by the City,” according to the city’s own rules on public hearing notices.

The contract gives the city the ability to terminate the agreement “at any time and for any reason.”

Spokespersons for the Finance Department weren’t immediately available for comment Friday.

New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer declined to comment.

New York City Public Advocate Letitia James didn’t respond to requests for comment on Friday on the eve of the holiday weekend.

In September, three government agencies settled with Wells Fargo for $185 million because its employees had been using customers’ Social Security numbers to open millions of fake checking accounts and cards in order to reach monthly quotas since 2011.

The scandal was so toxic that then-Chief Executive John Stumpf resigned just 34 days after the settlement was announced.

He was replaced by Tim Sloan, a longtime Wells Fargo banker.

Should the city sever its business with Wells Fargo, it would follow San Francisco, Chicago — as well as the states of California and Illinois, which all ended various contracts for the next year or so.

“We look forward to a continued discussion with the New York City Department of Finance about their concerns. We have valued the City’s relationship with us and are doing everything in our power to rebuild the City’s trust in us,” Kevin Friedlander, a bank spokesman, told The Post. kdugan@nypost.com