Wells Fargo employees caught up in the bank’s fake account fiasco lost more than their jobs if they did or didn’t meet sales goals: they also say they suffered physically and emotionally from the pressure placed on them by management to “sell, sell, sell.” [More]
wells fargo
Better Business Bureau Strips Wells Fargo Of Accreditation After Fake Account Fiasco
By 10.20.16
Wells Fargo continues to take hits following its fake account fiasco. Following the “retirement” of its CEO John Stumpf, news of a criminal investigation of identity theft, and numerous rounds of questioning by lawmakers, comes news that the financial institution has been stripped of its Better Business Bureau accreditation. [More]
California Investigating Wells Fargo For Criminal Identity Theft
By 10.20.16
In a piece of heartening consumer justice news, it’s recently become public that the state of California is conducting a criminal investigation against Wells Fargo for identity theft. Earlier this month, the state served a search warrant on the bank, which asks for information about customers with fake accounts, and the identities of the bankers who opened those accounts. [More]
Ex-Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf Resigns From Boards Of Chevron, Target
By 10.18.16 — Updated: 10.19.16
John Stumpf, who “retired” last week from his position as CEO of Wells Fargo due to the company’s fake account scandal, is also taking the opportunity to “retire” from board seats. Oil company Chevron and retailer Target announced today in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that Stumpf would be stepping down from their respective boards, both of which he joined in 2010. [More]
Report: Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf Warned Of Widespread Fraud In 2007
By 10.18.16
Recently “retired” Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf claimed before Congress that he first learned about the bank’s fake account fiasco in 2013, but a new report claims that a Wells employee tried to warn him about the problem back in 2007. [More]
Ohio Also Decides It’s Time To Take A Break From Doing Business With Wells Fargo
By 10.14.16
Following in the footsteps of Illinois and California, the state of Ohio has become the latest to take a break from doing business with Wells Fargo until the dark cloud of the current fake account fiasco passes. [More]
Wells Fargo Employee: Bank Hid Truth About 401(k) Plan Amid “Criminal Epidemic”
By 10.14.16
Thousands of Wells Fargo employees have already been fired for opening unauthorized accounts to meet sales goals, but what about all of those employees who remain at the bank? They’ve seen the value of their 401(k) retirement plan sink during this fake account fiasco, and some are saying that Wells hid the truth from them about the huge bogus account sinkhole that was waiting to collapse underneath them. [More]
New Wells Fargo CEO Recently Denied “Overbearing Sales Culture” That Created Fake Account Fiasco
By 10.13.16
Yesterday afternoon, Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf announced his sudden “retirement” from the bank that continues to deal with the fallout of a fake account fiasco that saw thousands of Wells employees opening up millions of bogus, unauthorized accounts just to meet high-pressure sales goals and quotas. However, the Wells exec who has stepped into the CEO spot has a history of denying that any such atmosphere existed at the bank. [More]
Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf “Retires” Amid Fake Account Fiasco
By 10.12.16 — Updated: 10.31.16
In the middle of an embarrassing fake account fiasco that may have lasted a decade before being shut down by federal regulators, Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf has decided that maybe it’s for the best that he “retire” from the bank’s top spot. [More]
Report: Disgraced Wells Fargo Exec Warned About Employees Opening Fake Accounts In 2006
By 10.12.16
In an attempt to determine the extent of its massive fake account fiasco, Wells Fargo has agreed to review account histories going back to 2009. However, the bank has already been presented with evidence that employees may have been opening bogus accounts before that, and a new report appears to show that the Wells executive blamed for turning a blind eye to this chicanery was actually warned about fake accounts a decade ago. [More]
Woman Returns $380 Bank ATM Spat Out Of Deposit Slot Instead Of Pocketing It
By 10.6.16 — Updated: 3.30.17
When there’s free money involved, there’s always going to be the temptation to take it, even if you know it’s not right. But yet another good consumer has done an honorable deed, this time by returning almost $400 that unexpectedly shot out of a drive-thru bank ATM. [More]
14 Senators Agree: DOJ Needs To Investigate, Prosecute Wells Fargo Executives
By 10.5.16
Thousands of Wells Fargo employees were let go after federal and state regulators exposed the long-running fake account fiasco, and the civil lawsuits and congressional investigations into the matter are beginning to pile up. Now a coalition of 14 senators are asking the Department of Justice to launch a criminal investigation in the hope of ferreting out individuals at Wells Fargo who may have encouraged or turned a blind eye to this fraud. [More]
Senator Says Wells Fargo Fake Account Fiasco May Have Also Hit Small Businesses
By 10.4.16
Much of the attention surrounding the ongoing Wells Fargo fake account fiasco has focused on the millions of individual banking and credit customers who had bogus accounts opened in their name without authorization. But Wells Fargo is also a major provider of small business loans and accounts, and the head of the Senate Small Business Committee wants the bank to find out how many, if any, of these customers were affected by this widespread fraud. [More]
Did Morgan Stanley Advisors Push Customers Into Unneeded Loans?
By 10.3.16
If we’ve learned anything from Wells Fargo’s recent fake account fiasco, it’s that high-pressure sales tactics can lead to unethical and sometimes illegal behavior. But did similar sales quotas and incentives lead Morgan Stanley employees to push customers into unneeded loans? That’s a question regulators in Massachusetts aim to answer. [More]
Illinois, California End Some Business With Wells Fargo — At Least For Now
By 10.3.16
The fallout from the Wells Fargo fake account fiasco continues to pile up, with state officials in both California and Illinois announcing they would stop doing business with the bank for the time-being. [More]
Lawmaker Presents Wells Fargo With Evidence Of Potential Account Fraud From 2007
By 9.30.16
At yesterday’s contentious House Financial Services Committee hearing on the Wells Fargo fake account fiasco, CEO John Stumpf said his bank was reviewing accounts going back to 2009 to see how long employees had been opening new accounts in customers’ names without authorization. Now one member of Congress says there is evidence indicating that this sort of bad behavior goes back nearly a decade. [More]
Wells Fargo On The Hook For $24.5M Over Servicemember Abuses
By 9.30.16
Wells Fargo’s bad month has just gotten worse. The U.S. Department of Justice and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) have fined the big bank $24.1 million for allegedly violating the law by repossessing military servicemembers’ cars.
[More]
Lawmakers Who Received Money From Wells Fargo Now Want Answers From Bank’s CEO
By and 9.29.16 — Updated: 10.3.16
Imagine you’re a politician who received tens of thousands of dollars in recent years from a bank, and hundreds of thousands from a banking industry that wants to do away with new consumer protections. Then that bank is caught opening up millions of fake accounts without authorization. If you’re one of these bank-backed legislators, this huge scandal is apparently an opportunity to take shots at the federal regulator the banking industry has been trying to undermine since its creation. [More]
