The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a bulletin on Monday warning supervised financial companies that creating incentives for employees and service providers to meet sales and other business goals can lead to consumer harm if not properly managed.

"Tying bonuses and job security to business goals that are unrealistic or not properly monitored can lead to illegal practices like unauthorized account openings and deceptive sales tactics," said CFPB Director Richard Cordray, in a statement. "The CFPB is warning companies to make sure that their incentives operate to reward quality customer service, not fraud and abuse."

In early September, CFPB cracked down on Wells Fargo after the bank's employees opened 2 million unauthorized accounts to reach cross-sale goals. Wells Fargo was fined a total of $185 million by the CFPB for its widespread illegal practice of secretly opening unauthorized deposit and credit card accounts.

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Emily Zulz

Emily joined the ThinkAdvisor team as a reporter in the summer of 2014. She previously worked as a reporter for The Daily Journal in Kankakee, Illinois for a year and as a reporter and editor for The Daily Eastern News in Charleston, Illinois for two and a half years. Prior to joining ThinkAdvisor, Emily worked on Groupon’s editorial team in Chicago as a fact checker for three years. She graduated cum laude with a BA in journalism from Eastern Illinois University, and she has been the recipient of two journalism awards for her news reporting at daily newspapers.