Author Topic: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission  (Read 15787 times)

Travis

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http://www.kcra.com/money/wells-fargo-charged-with-opening-accounts-without-customers-permission/32817856?utm_source=Social&utm_medium=FBPAGE&utm_campaign=KCRA%203&Content%20Type=Story&linkId=13977838

Quote
The accounts are being opened by Wells Fargo employees under pressure to meet unrealistic sales goals and quotas, according to the civil complaint filed by the Los Angeles City Attorney.

The complaint charges that bank employees opened new accounts for existing customers without their authorization, in order to meet sales quotas. The employees also allegedly transferred money from customers' authorized accounts to pay fees on the unauthorized accounts.

When fees on unauthorized accounts went unpaid, some customers were placed into collection. Others had negative information placed on their credit reports as a result.

The report was filed in Los Angeles, but doesn't say whether this was at a particular branch, city, or nationwide.

Indexer

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #1 on: May 06, 2015, 04:56:46 PM »
I worked in banking years ago.  People in the industry talk, especially when they leave a terrible bank to go work somewhere hospitable. 

Wells Fargo has had this reputation for at least 5 years within the industry.

I heard the same story from at least 20 different people.  Their goals are insane.  I heard cases of family members of bankers opening accounts once a quarter and then closing them so the banker could get 'close' to hitting a goal.  Tellers would commonly do the same thing to help the branch.  If you didn't have 5 appointments on the books for the next day... you aren't going home, you are dialing until you have 5 appointments on the calendar for the next day.  I also heard they got in trouble over OT pay... because of making people stay late.  The bonuses you 'could' get were nice, but no one ever hit them.  A lot of them left after Wells bought Wachovia and came to work at the bank I was at.  And this was about as far from LA as you can be.  ;)

I did hear cases of people going the next step and opening accounts that weren't authorized.  The worst case I ever heard was a guy who was opening credit cards for people he didn't talk to.  The other banker reported something was up.  The guy would sit in his office for an hour, make maybe 1 phone call, and then magically he opened 6 credit cards.  Management ignored the report.  The guy was blowing away his goals.  Everyone loved him.  Banker #2 still thinks something is up.... and then come the clients.  Clients start coming in pissed off wanting to close their accounts.... I wonder why.  Banker #2 has had it.  Every single client who comes in with this complaint she tells them she will take care of it and close the extra credit card, but if they really want to be heard they need to call the area manager.  Area manager's phone blows up.... banker #2 is the one who gets chewed a new one, and told banker #1 is doing nothing wrong, clearly banker #2 is just jealous. Banker #2 quits and comes to work at the same bank as me. She was super nice, a ton of her old clients followed her away from Wells Fargo because they trusted her, and she normally blew her goals out of the water.  When I left that bank for a more lucrative career I kept my checking account there... I consider her(banker #2) to be my banker.

Eventually the banker setting up the fake credit cards was fired.... on her last day banker #2 called their internal fraud department... they investigated it and immediately fired the guy because it was clearly all true.

iluvzbeach

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #2 on: May 06, 2015, 07:37:16 PM »
I left Wells after 19 years (through a series of acquisitions) and I can tell you without a doubt it is 100% true. Every last bit of it. And, although I worked in the LA markets at one point before it was Wells, when I left I was in a market in Texas. The behavior described in the article and by Indexer above is precisely what I saw going on with my very own eyes. I'm glad someone seems to finally be doing something about it.

BlueHouse

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #3 on: May 07, 2015, 10:56:04 AM »
That's interesting. I went to open a WF personal checking and business checking account.  I gave them a lot of my info and even let them copy my Driver's License, but they said I needed to bring in additional paperwork to open the account. 
I never followed up, and about two weeks later, the personal checking account had been opened in my name.  No big deal, it's got 44 cents in it now because I started to set up some direct deposit and other brokerage links to it.   

I guess they didn't open the business account because they really do need the corp documents to open that. 

Incidentally, the reason I decided against moving my checking account to WF after all the preliminary work had been done and even once the account was opened, was because they absolutely will not give me an ATM card.  They will give me a debit card (with Visa logo, etc), but not just a simple ATM card that ONLY works in ATMs and doesn't allow for shopping, cash back, credit card charges, etc.  I just don't like a bank that says no to me.

TheAnonOne

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #4 on: May 07, 2015, 11:10:26 AM »
This is pretty accurate, I had a roommate who worked as a teller, and they constantly got pressured to direct customers to the bankers for "Financial reviews" which basically amounted to opening several lines of credit, having a checking account, an internet checking account (for online purchases) and a savings account for both accounts.

That being said, my first bank account was at WF due to the location and I just haven't changed it in years...

tonysemail

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #5 on: September 08, 2016, 02:26:32 PM »
an old story with a big update today-
http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/08/investing/wells-fargo-created-phony-accounts-bank-fees/index.html

I have a number of accounts at wellsfargo and this leaves me feeling conflicted.
I'm not sure whether I'll close any out.
I would like to keep my 100 free trades per year.
And there are those pesky account closing / transfer fees.
*sigh*

Papa Mustache

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #6 on: September 08, 2016, 03:15:40 PM »
What does Wells Fargo offer that other local banks don't offer?

The whole affair seems very sketchy and I would be very cautious about allowing them to hold my money.

We live in an area without WF and bank with a small credit union.

Travis

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #7 on: September 08, 2016, 03:18:29 PM »
5,300 employees! That's systemic, not a "mistake" as WF corporate called it.  They've been my bank for checking since college.  I'm doing more business these days with Chase, but I haven't had a reason to make a full switch.  I don't use them for much, so there hasn't been much need to comparison shop other banks.  My oldest credit card is with WF so I'm not in a hurry to close that one out even though I don't use it.  The worst part about this scandal is there's no easy to way to turn back the clock on damage done to someone's credit report. 

patchyfacialhair

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #8 on: September 08, 2016, 08:19:02 PM »
It's definitely systemic, and I'm afraid, based on my anecdote, that it goes back even more that just a few years. When my parents moved to a new location 9 years ago, they stopped into a Wells branch to get information on mortgages in order to shop the best deal for rates, points, fees, etc.

After walking out with what they thought was just "information," the dude helping them opened a line of credit under my father's name. My father didn't sign or authorize anything. He went back in, ripped the guy a new one, then blew up corporate for a while. Not sure what the end result was, but ever since then the whole family has sworn off Wells.

Reynold

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #9 on: September 09, 2016, 02:52:59 PM »
I'm doing more business these days with Chase, but I haven't had a reason to make a full switch.   

My in-laws use Chase, and since my DW and I started helping them with their finances we twice spotted $10 fees charged on their checking account with no explanation.  A phone call got a "Oh, we'll take that right off!" but no explanation.  I wonder how many people wouldn't catch that, and how much money Chase "accidentally" makes that way?  Most people I know don't check their statements that carefully for small items. 

Spork

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #10 on: September 09, 2016, 03:00:59 PM »
I'm doing more business these days with Chase, but I haven't had a reason to make a full switch.   

My in-laws use Chase, and since my DW and I started helping them with their finances we twice spotted $10 fees charged on their checking account with no explanation.  A phone call got a "Oh, we'll take that right off!" but no explanation.  I wonder how many people wouldn't catch that, and how much money Chase "accidentally" makes that way?  Most people I know don't check their statements that carefully for small items.

You are absolutely right about this one.  I've had multiple discussions on these forums with folks that scoff at manually checking statements.  You open Quicken/Mint/whatever and click on an icon and it tells you everything it reconciles okay.

--
I was also shocked at the idea there could be 5k workers let go that were just bad apples.  No. Not even a chance.  And not a chance that 5000 employees is even close to the number of people involved.  It's 5000 scape goats.  "Quick!  Fire 1 manager and 1 teller at every other branch!"

Travis

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #11 on: September 09, 2016, 04:04:19 PM »
I'm doing more business these days with Chase, but I haven't had a reason to make a full switch.   

My in-laws use Chase, and since my DW and I started helping them with their finances we twice spotted $10 fees charged on their checking account with no explanation.  A phone call got a "Oh, we'll take that right off!" but no explanation.  I wonder how many people wouldn't catch that, and how much money Chase "accidentally" makes that way?  Most people I know don't check their statements that carefully for small items.

You are absolutely right about this one.  I've had multiple discussions on these forums with folks that scoff at manually checking statements.  You open Quicken/Mint/whatever and click on an icon and it tells you everything it reconciles okay.

--
I was also shocked at the idea there could be 5k workers let go that were just bad apples.  No. Not even a chance.  And not a chance that 5000 employees is even close to the number of people involved.  It's 5000 scape goats.  "Quick!  Fire 1 manager and 1 teller at every other branch!"

I've seen a few discussions in this section of the forum of folks who had fees deducted for years who never noticed.  I think there was a story of someone who was either being overcharged for cable or cancelled it and still got billed for a couple years without noticing.

Wells Fargo says those 5,000 employees represent 1% of the workforce.  It doesn't sound like much until you rephrase that as: 1 out of every 100 people in your organization committed fraud.  It gets worse when you think about how many employees are at a typical Wells Fargo branch who would be handling accounts. A couple dozen?  Was it every branch in the state of California? There's certainly enough fired employees to account for that large of a group.

iluvzbeach

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #12 on: September 10, 2016, 09:10:24 AM »
The overall number should be significantly greater than 5,300. Trust me, I know for a fact because I worked there. 5,300 is the number they can come up with to make it look like they've addressed the problem. The issue is it is systemic and it is bad.

One other thing no one has written about is that there are literally thousands more who got fired because they weren't meeting goals (since they wouldn't cheat) and then there are people like me who quit after 19 years of service (not all with Wells, but all years counted since I got to them through acquisitions) because they/we wouldn't compromise our integrity. I could be less than 4 years from retiring with full healthcare benefits, but left because I couldn't work in those conditions. I'll still retire, but will have to make my own arrangements for healthcare.

Lanthiriel

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #13 on: September 11, 2016, 01:20:04 AM »
I've been banking at credit unions for more than 5 years now. I love that they never seem to try to sell me anything, and I personally know people who work at my current bank and they're lovely. The only reason I can think of to bank at a national bank is if you move a lot. Otherwise credit unions are amazing.

I did recently open an Ally checking account, though, to try to make a little interest on my emergency fund.

Travis

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #14 on: September 11, 2016, 08:18:58 AM »
I've been banking at credit unions for more than 5 years now. I love that they never seem to try to sell me anything, and I personally know people who work at my current bank and they're lovely. The only reason I can think of to bank at a national bank is if you move a lot. Otherwise credit unions are amazing.

I did recently open an Ally checking account, though, to try to make a little interest on my emergency fund.

My credit union only exists in California. Until I leave the Army they're of little use to me so I keep the minimum balance to avoid monthly fees.  When I retire back to CA there's a good chance my mortgage will go through them. Except for the financial adviser they allowed to rent an office in their building my family's record with them is spotless. 

I joined WF during college and after I joined the Army I discovered they have a very light presence in the eastern half of the US.  Some time in the next year I may make a decision between them and Chase.

Paul der Krake

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #15 on: September 11, 2016, 08:43:00 AM »
Heh, maybe it's naive but I can buy that 5,300 employees gamed the system. Wells Fargo has 265,000 employees. I can't find numbers on the number of branch employees, but going with a conservative 60,000 employees spread over their 6,000+ branches, that's under 10%.

Bank employees don't exactly earn a lot. 1 in 10 willing to do shady stuff? Totally believable.

Dancin'Dog

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #16 on: September 11, 2016, 05:05:48 PM »
I have a family member working at WF and he tells me that they employ hundreds of Indians contracted through India, and pay them Indian wages & work them Indian hours.  He works along side them in NC!!!  They get a fraction of the US wages, work much longer days, and are taking US jobs.

It's outrageous.

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #17 on: September 11, 2016, 09:03:34 PM »
I have a family member working at WF and he tells me that they employ hundreds of Indians contracted through India, and pay them Indian wages & work them Indian hours.  He works along side them in NC!!!  They get a fraction of the US wages, work much longer days, and are taking US jobs.

It's outrageous.

Are they seriously located in NC?!?!?! Or is it a call center?

Dancin'Dog

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #18 on: September 11, 2016, 09:52:13 PM »

[/quote]

Are they seriously located in NC?!?!?! Or is it a call center?
[/quote]

East coast HQ!





tonysemail

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #19 on: September 27, 2016, 06:32:23 PM »
a small measure of justice.. it was more than a little fun watching senator warren rip him a new one.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2016/09/27/wells-fargo-pay-clawback-5-people-decide/91165192/

"Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf has agreed to give up $41 million in unvested stock awards following the board of directors' investigation into the bank's sales practices, the company said Tuesday.

Additionally, Carrie Tolstedt, Wells Fargo's former head of community banking, will forego all her unvested equity stock awards valued at $19 million and will not receive retirement benefits worth millions more."

sleepyguy

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #20 on: September 27, 2016, 07:59:22 PM »
WF Ceo - "I take full responsibility of this debacle..."

<proceeds to fire 5300 employees and not himself>

LOL

TheOldestYoungMan

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #21 on: September 28, 2016, 08:22:50 AM »
Heh, maybe it's naive but I can buy that 5,300 employees gamed the system. Wells Fargo has 265,000 employees. I can't find numbers on the number of branch employees, but going with a conservative 60,000 employees spread over their 6,000+ branches, that's under 10%.

Bank employees don't exactly earn a lot. 1 in 10 willing to do shady stuff? Totally believable.

It's believable that 1 in 10 were willing to do it. 

It's not believable that a corporate executive making millions of dollars could be so clueless about the concepts of cheating, fraud, and how certain kinds of incentives lead to cheating and fraud.  The mistake that's easy to make here is not holding the executives responsible for preventing this 100% predictable outcome from happening.  The whole justification for the high compensation of executives is that they are competent enough to deal with these types of things.

It's that whole situation of, are you bad at your job or did you do it on purpose?  It is one or the other, and you get fired for both.

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #22 on: September 28, 2016, 09:16:58 AM »
WF Ceo - "I take full responsibility of this debacle..."

<proceeds to fire 5300 employees and not himself>

LOL

^^^^ This is why people don't trust "business leaders".

Paul der Krake

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #23 on: September 28, 2016, 10:02:27 AM »
Heh, maybe it's naive but I can buy that 5,300 employees gamed the system. Wells Fargo has 265,000 employees. I can't find numbers on the number of branch employees, but going with a conservative 60,000 employees spread over their 6,000+ branches, that's under 10%.

Bank employees don't exactly earn a lot. 1 in 10 willing to do shady stuff? Totally believable.

It's believable that 1 in 10 were willing to do it. 

It's not believable that a corporate executive making millions of dollars could be so clueless about the concepts of cheating, fraud, and how certain kinds of incentives lead to cheating and fraud.  The mistake that's easy to make here is not holding the executives responsible for preventing this 100% predictable outcome from happening.  The whole justification for the high compensation of executives is that they are competent enough to deal with these types of things.

It's that whole situation of, are you bad at your job or did you do it on purpose?  It is one or the other, and you get fired for both.
Oh don't get me wrong, the leadership is guilty of looking the other way/gross incompetence (whichever they prefer), for sure. That doesn't absolve the individual employees who made the conscious choice of scamming their customers.

tonysemail

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #24 on: September 28, 2016, 10:12:38 AM »
it's probably worse than you describe.
the employees who stood up to management were fired/disciplined.
the culture was sabotaged.
you're left with rotten apples and jaded people doing what they know is wrong.
it's more insidious than mere incompetence.

MgoSam

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #25 on: September 28, 2016, 01:18:37 PM »
Nothing will come of this besides a few token people being dismissed and some executives losing some stock options. At worst, the CEO may be forced out, but he'll be handsomely compensated.

mlejw6

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #26 on: September 28, 2016, 02:48:45 PM »
Oh don't get me wrong, the leadership is guilty of looking the other way/gross incompetence (whichever they prefer), for sure. That doesn't absolve the individual employees who made the conscious choice of scamming their customers.
No, it doesn't absolve them. But, who is guiltier: the leadership that put into place majorly unrealistic goals or the employees who cheat to try to attain them?

I'd say it's the leadership. They have a responsibility to try to not squeeze blood from a stone. They are the ones in charge, are they not? Who's to judge if one of those stones pricks a customer and takes blood so they can keep their job? Ok, this analogy is just getting weird. I'll stop now.

BlueHouse

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #27 on: September 28, 2016, 03:55:43 PM »
it's probably worse than you describe.
the employees who stood up to management were fired/disciplined.
the culture was sabotaged.
you're left with rotten apples and jaded people doing what they know is wrong.
it's more insidious than mere incompetence.
Is this fact or conjecture? 

tonysemail

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #28 on: September 28, 2016, 04:01:12 PM »
Is this fact or conjecture?

mostly conjecture.  I did see a class action law suit that alleges the same.
But I wouldn't know how to discover whether it was just the two ex-employees or if it was everyone.
http://fortune.com/2016/09/26/wells-fargo-sales-lawsuit/

"While executives at the top benefited from the activity, the blame landed on thousands of $12-per-hour employees who tried to meet the quotas and were often required to work off the clock to do so, the lawsuit said.

Employees with a conscience who tried to meet quotas without engaging in fraud were the biggest victims, losing wages, benefits and suffering anxiety, humiliation and embarrassment, the lawsuit said."

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #29 on: September 28, 2016, 04:28:51 PM »
it's probably worse than you describe.
the employees who stood up to management were fired/disciplined.
the culture was sabotaged.
you're left with rotten apples and jaded people doing what they know is wrong.
it's more insidious than mere incompetence.

I've never worked in banking, but I saw some similar things happen in a company I worked for 1991 through 1995. Definitely the toxicity and corruption rolled downhill.

Since I don't have any contacts at Wells Fargo I can't say for sure whether the same pattern existed there too.

Rustycage

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #30 on: September 28, 2016, 05:42:48 PM »
I'm not in the USA so I don't have all the up-to-date news, but has Warren Buffett made any public comment on this (given he has a pretty large stake in Wells Fargo)?

He is always talking about trusting management etc., but surely even he would have made some contact with the CEO for a "please explain"?

TheOldestYoungMan

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #31 on: September 29, 2016, 09:57:56 AM »
Well, it looks like Wells Fargo just lost a huge customer (State of California).

That's what I don't understand about major corporate malfeasance.  You've got to have in the back of your mind that some politician somewhere is just itching for the excuse to score points with the electorate out of whupping your ass.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/29/business/dealbook/california-wells-fargo-john-stumpf.html?_r=0

An Exxon executive once said to me "the thing these guys don't understand, is that we're all in the same boat.  Stop poking holes in the bottom."

Dezrah

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #32 on: September 29, 2016, 10:14:06 AM »
I'm not in the USA so I don't have all the up-to-date news, but has Warren Buffett made any public comment on this (given he has a pretty large stake in Wells Fargo)?

He is always talking about trusting management etc., but surely even he would have made some contact with the CEO for a "please explain"?

http://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-no-comment-wells-fargo-scandal-until-november-election-2016-9

He's applying a blanket "no comment" policy about everything until after the election in November.  Pretty convenient for him that the public will be totally bored with this story by that time.

deadlymonkey

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #33 on: September 29, 2016, 11:20:50 AM »
It's funny.  I open accounts in someone else's name and it is Identity theft and I go to jail.  A couple thousand people do it repeatedly and is a "bad business decision" and the execs still get their bonuses. 

Mississippi Mudstache

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #34 on: September 29, 2016, 11:30:37 AM »
it's probably worse than you describe.
the employees who stood up to management were fired/disciplined.
the culture was sabotaged.
you're left with rotten apples and jaded people doing what they know is wrong.
it's more insidious than mere incompetence.
Is this fact or conjecture?

I believe it. One of my college friends claims to have been fired from Wells Fargo for bringing up the issue with his manager. He also claims that there was similar behavior at SunTrust, where he also worked. I have no proof that this is why he was fired, but I have no reason to doubt him.

franklin w. dixon

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #35 on: September 29, 2016, 12:27:19 PM »
It's funny.  I open accounts in someone else's name and it is Identity theft and I go to jail.  A couple thousand people do it repeatedly and is a "bad business decision" and the execs still get their bonuses.
Yeah my first reaction when they announced the fine was "Oh, $50 fine is the penalty for identity theft these days, cool, smart, makes sense. These must be the onerous regulations weighing down the free markets that I always hear about."

Goldielocks

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #36 on: September 29, 2016, 04:28:18 PM »
WF Ceo - "I take full responsibility of this debacle..."

<proceeds to fire 5300 employees and not himself>

LOL

^^^^ This is why people don't trust "business leaders".
Quite a different response compared to Volkswagon.

tonysemail

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #37 on: January 05, 2017, 10:33:32 PM »
reviving this thread again with an update from planet money:

"SMITH: And we specifically told a story about a young man named Jeremy who had this scarlet letter on his U5 and essentially had to change the part of the banking industry he was in, and he knows this bad mark is still on his record.

....

ELIZABETH WARREN: We heard the reports on NPR about former Wells employees who said that Wells Fargo had retaliated against them using statements on their U5s that were not true and that hurt them. And that's what got us interested. And so we started looking at the U5s, these statements that are required to be filed and digging and finding more and more evidence of a big problem at Wells."

I love Elizabeth Warren.  She has a vendetta against big banks and it's immensely satisfying to see someone standing up for the little guy.
It probably won't amount to much, but at least this one method of punishing Whistleblowers can be removed.
Whistleblowers should be rewarded instead of punished.
But again, it comes down to corporate culture and Wellsfargo seems to have a toxic one.
« Last Edit: January 06, 2017, 02:58:45 PM by tonysemail »

RetiredAt63

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #38 on: January 06, 2017, 02:42:03 PM »
What is a U5?

gimp

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #39 on: January 06, 2017, 03:08:29 PM »
What is a U5?

Context would tell me that it's a financial-industry report one someone's [mis]deeds; a bad one is essentially blackballing someone.

tonysemail

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #40 on: January 06, 2017, 03:11:48 PM »
oops, messed up the link.  it should be fixed now.

My understanding is that U5 is a form that banks file when letting go of an employee.
In theory, it helps prevent unethical people from getting hired, but in can be used vindictively.
Here is the episode about that.

"ARNOLD: All banks could use this database. They could fill out a little note on a troublesome or maybe a dishonest employee. Not every employee at a bank, by the way, has to have a U5, but the ones who handle investments do, and there's a lot of them.

SMITH: And the next bank could just check out the U5 before they hire someone, read with the last bank wrote and make their decision. Essentially, it set up a system whereby the banks were policing themselves.

SMITH: So this is the way it was supposed to work - a simple reporting tool for good banks to stop bad employees. But what happens when the bank itself becomes the problem, when there are bad managers? This is what we're hearing happened at Wells Fargo. The U5 became a weapon, a way to threaten and punish employees."

markpst

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #41 on: January 06, 2017, 05:52:51 PM »
Here is some more background on the U5, on a NPR Planet Money podcast:

http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/10/28/499805238/episode-732-bad-form-wells-fargo


Planet Money is one of my favorite podcasts.

RetiredAt63

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Re: Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without permission
« Reply #42 on: January 06, 2017, 06:31:32 PM »
Thanks all. (re U5)

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!