Published on March 11, 2020 by the FairShake Team
Since it came out that Wells Fargo was opening accounts without customer consent, the bank has been involved in numerous other scandals, including charging its customers illegal fees, according to MarketWatch.
In several March 2020 reports, lawmakers in the U.S. House Financial Services Committee accused Wells Fargo of being “reckless” and exhibiting “an egregious pattern of consumer abuses,” according to MarketWatch:
The committee said it is recommending that regulators be compelled to act against “recidivist megabanks” that are found to have conducted consumer abuses, strengthen regulators’ authority and boards’ accountability and pass a “bank workers’ bill of rights,” which would strengthen whistlebower protections, curb non-disclosure agreements and ensure training for compliance with consumer protection laws, among other things.
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More from MarketWatch:
Lawmakers accused Wells Fargo & Co. of failing to comply with regulatory orders in a scathing report Wednesday, and said the bank poses a major risk to consumers.
The U.S. House Financial Services Committee published a report of its year-long findings into the bank late Wednesday, ahead of scheduled hearings with Chief Executive Charles Scharf and Chairwoman Betsy Duke next week.
Wells Fargo WFC, -6.842% is “a reckless megabank with an ineffective board and management that has exhibited an egregious pattern of consumer abuses,” Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said in a statement accompanying the report. “Wells Fargo has clearly demonstrated an unwillingness and inability to stop harming its customers.”
“The potential for widespread consumer abuse still remains at Wells Fargo,” the report said.
Wells Fargo has been embroiled in a number of scandals in recent years, including opening millions of customer accounts without permission, charging illegal fees and charging customers for unnecessary automobile-insurance payments. A number of consent orders were put in place following the scandals.
In February, Wells Fargo agreed to pay $3 billion to settle Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission investigations into the bank’s sales practices. Sharf said at the time that the bank’s former culture was “reprehensible and wholly inconsistent with the values on which Wells Fargo was built,” and promised to commit “all necessary resources to ensure that nothing like this happens again.” Last month, the bank settled a separate SEC probe for $35 million that alleged it sold risky ETFs to clients.
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