The lawmakers argue that, after Wells Fargo struck a settlement with regulators over potentially creating 2 million fake accounts for existing clients to boost sales numbers, the panel has little to learn from Stumpf and he should be replaced.
Advertisement
Former bank employees have recently come forward to allege that they were threatened with termination if they didn’t meet bank sales quotas, the senators wrote. That’s two percent of Wells Fargo’s global workforce, as noted above, which means it was hardly a random phenomenon.
Wells Fargo disclosed that it has fired some 5,300 employees over the past five years in connection with these actions.
Earlier this month, the lender agreed to pay $190 million in penalties and customer payouts to settle a case in which bank employees created credit, savings and other accounts without customer knowledge.
Stumpf, sporting an injured hand, appeared before the US Senate this week to face questions over the conditions which led to Wells Fargo agreeing to pay $185m for “abusive” sales practices. Senator Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Wells Fargo violated internal controls provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley by not recognizing and stopping the misconduct. The only adverse effect he has suffered as a result of the malfeasance of his bank, is being grilled by members of the Senate Finance Committee.
John Stumpf of Wells Fargo, equally inept at both management and circumlocution, was asked Tuesday to gauge his accountability for the criminal enterprise that ripped off hundreds of thousands of customers since 2011.
Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal.
The Wells Fargo board has the power to do precisely that, whether Stumpf steps down or not.
“They are doing what a lot of big companies do, which is to make scapegoats out of people least able to defend themselves, and that won’t work if you’re trying to restore your reputation”, said Grabowski, who has represented Rosie O’Donnell and Roger Clemens.
Morris Ratner, who teaches business law at UC Hastings in San Francisco, said such suits are “a natural outcome of the kind of misconduct of which Wells Fargo is accused”. Earlier in 2016 Santander Bank was fined US million for allegedly enrolling customers in overdraft protection services that they had never authorised.
In fact, filings show that in 2015, Stumpf received $4 million in awards for among other factors growing “primary consumer, small business and banking checking customers” that year. But customers at other banks made similar complaints.
A spokeswoman told the news outlet: ‘We do not tolerate retaliation against team members who report their concerns in good faith’.
Mr. Curry also said his agency will review the sales practices of all the large and midsize banks it supervises.
On Wednesday, the law firm that tried unsuccessfully to file a class action against Wells Fargo past year put out a call to find customers similarly wronged by other banks. Trump has always been strongly opposed to federal regulation of the financial industry – or any industry for that matter.
Advertisement
However, reporters are giving this latest illegal scheme by Wells Fargo employees more attention than previous transgressions.
