US bank Wells Fargo is ending offering personal lines of credit, which has been one of its most popular lending product. The bank is expected to shut down all existing personal lines of credit in coming weeks and will no longer offer it. The revolving credit lines, which typically let users borrow $3,000 to $100,000, were pitched as a way to consolidate higher-interest credit card debt, pay for home renovations or avoid overdraft fees on linked checking accounts. The bank said it recently reviewed its product offerings and decided to discontinue offering new personal and portfolio line of credit accounts and close all existing accounts. It intends to focus on credit cards and personal loans, it said. The US banking regulator Federal Reserve had imposed limitations on the bank and had barred it from growing its balance sheet until it fixes compliance shortcomings revealed by the bank’s fake accounts scandal. This had cost the bank billions of dollars in lost earnings, based on the balance sheet growth of rival banks in the past 3 years. In 2020, the bank had stopped all new home equity lines of credit and later it also withdrew from a segment of the auto lending business.
