This is why governmental regulations are needed. Wells Fargo has been caught so often in shady deals that I would never have an account with them.
From: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/wells-fargo-fraud_us_57d2d237e4b03d2d459a083c?
Wells Fargo just proved, again, that no scam is beneath America’s financial institutions. And no institution is above being watched by a federal agency.
On Thursday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ― the watchdog group proposed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D. Mass.) in the aftermath of the financial crisis ― announced that Wells Fargo would pony up a total of $185 million for perpetrating a huge scam on its customers.
Over at least the past five years, Wells Fargo employees created more than 1.5 million sham checking accounts and applied for 565,000 credit cards, using customer names and money. Customers were charged unnecessary fees, saw their credit scores fall or were simply confused when debit and credit cards they never asked for showed up in the mail.
“Was the Great Financial Crisis so long ago that all chasteness and propriety are already out the window? This scam has been apparently going on for five years,” writes Josh Brown, a financial blogger. “These people are fearless.”
The CFPB has come under intense criticism from Republicans, who say it’s a drag on business. Many ― including presidential hopeful Donald Trump and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence ― have said they would like to see the agency abolished as part of their intended dismantling of the 2010 Dodd-Frank legislation passed to prevent another economic meltdown.
But every time the agency exposes wrongdoing in consumer banking ― as it did on Thursday ― the CFPB offers a strong counterpoint to those arguments.
From: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/wells-fargo-fraud_us_57d2d237e4b03d2d459a083c?
Wells Fargo just proved, again, that no scam is beneath America’s financial institutions. And no institution is above being watched by a federal agency.
On Thursday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ― the watchdog group proposed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D. Mass.) in the aftermath of the financial crisis ― announced that Wells Fargo would pony up a total of $185 million for perpetrating a huge scam on its customers.
Over at least the past five years, Wells Fargo employees created more than 1.5 million sham checking accounts and applied for 565,000 credit cards, using customer names and money. Customers were charged unnecessary fees, saw their credit scores fall or were simply confused when debit and credit cards they never asked for showed up in the mail.
“Was the Great Financial Crisis so long ago that all chasteness and propriety are already out the window? This scam has been apparently going on for five years,” writes Josh Brown, a financial blogger. “These people are fearless.”
The CFPB has come under intense criticism from Republicans, who say it’s a drag on business. Many ― including presidential hopeful Donald Trump and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence ― have said they would like to see the agency abolished as part of their intended dismantling of the 2010 Dodd-Frank legislation passed to prevent another economic meltdown.
But every time the agency exposes wrongdoing in consumer banking ― as it did on Thursday ― the CFPB offers a strong counterpoint to those arguments.
