Banking   Up from the $110 millionWells Fargo & Co. has agreed to boost its payout in a class-action settlement over unauthorized accounts to $142 million.

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This is up from the $110 million it announced just three weeks ago, according to documents filed late Thursday.

Wells Fargo agreed to the larger settlement after an internal report released last week showed that bank officials knew about unethical sales practices — including the creation of debit cards without customers’ authorization — as early as 2002.

The settlement as proposed last month would have covered customers who had unauthorized accounts opened for them in 2009 or later.

Now the bank has added $32 million to the pot and agreed to pay customers affected by that practice going back to May 2002. A federal judge must still sign off on the deal.

Settlement documents filed in federal court in San Francisco late Thursday did not make clear how many customers may be eligible for the settlement or how many additional customers will be eligible because of the extension. ■

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