A new story from the WSJ’s Emily Glazer describes conditions at Wells Fargo branches in which tremendous pressure was put on employees to meet sales targets for the bank which championed itself as king of the cross-sell.
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California and US regulators fined San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. a combined $185 million last Thursday.
On Sept. 13, following days of criticism, the bank announced that it would stop imposing sales goals on its employees by January 1, 2017. Stumpf and several regulators are appearing before the Senate Banking Committee at a separate hearing on Tuesday. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, introduced legislation to abolish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, calling it “a runaway agency” that “does little to protect consumers”.
Both agencies are asked to provide the documents by September 23, 2016. The bank told the CFPB that they had fired over 5,300 employees over the last five years in connection to the improper behavior of their employees.
That letter seeks transcribed interviews with CFO John Shrewsberry, COO and president Timothy Sloan, chief risk officer Michael Loughlin and Carrie Tolstedt, the executive who oversaw the bank unit responsible for fake accounts, and who departed the bank with a pay package worth almost $100 million.
A top executive, Carrie Tolstedt, who ran the consumer banking division, in July announced her retirement from the bank this year.
She, as well as other Senate Democrats, wants to investigate the possibility that those employed at Wells Fargo were given such high compensation that they were motivated to help carry out this activity, or at the very least keep quiet about it. Warren is looking at how to fix the scandal that has taken place, as well as how to prevent such fraud from taking place in the future, reveals The Huffington Post.
On a conference call for press, former bank workers from the nation’s biggest banks will speak about their personal experiences with the aggressive and unreasonable sales goals that are forcing bank workers to push unnecessary products on their customers.
The House panel also is requesting internal documents from Wells Fargo and the regulators related to the timing and discovery of the sales practices.
When the CFPB, OCC and the Office of the Los Angeles City Attorney slapped the $185 million-dollar fine on the bank, Wells Fargo said in a statement that it takes responsibility “for any instances where customers may have received a product that they did not request”.
This is the first lawsuit to be brought against the bank for the fake accounts.
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Wells Fargo customers are advised to check statements for any suspicious or superfluous accounts on and offline.
