Does hearing anything about Wells Fargo make you shake your head these days? The city of Los Angeles sued the company in 2015. You have heard about those issues. Did you know that they are in trouble again? How does anyone have an account with this company? Wells Fargo should be out of business.
In 2015, the city of Los Angeles accused Wells Fargo of many illegal activities. Wells Fargo employees were trying to meet quotas by secretly opening deposit accounts for customers and transferring money into those accounts from the customers’ other accounts. They also submitted credit card applications for customers without their knowledge. They enrolled customers in online banking services they didn’t request and even used email addresses the customers didn’t create. They ordered and activated debit cards, with PINs, that people didn’t know about.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said that the problems were caused by incentive-driven compensation programs the company had in place. Of course, it took employees acting unethically, and in some cases illegally, for this to happen. Regardless of the pressure the company may or may not have placed on employees, it’s up to each person to do the right thing. They could have left the company for another job if it was too bad. Blame has to go on both the company and its employees.
I can’t imagine anyone keeping their accounts with Wells Fargo after hearing about this. And now we have learned of new problems that are as bad or worse than what was revealed in 2015. Now Wells Fargo is being charged with misapplying loan payments, wrongfully foreclosing on homes, illegally repossessing vehicles, incorrectly assessing fees and interest, charging surprise overdraft fees, illegally freezing accounts and misrepresenting fee waivers. Among other penalties, Wells Fargo has to pay $2 billion in redress to consumers and a $1.7 billion penalty to the CFPB.
If we hear of something else in a few years, who will be surprised? How does anyone stay with or open a new account with Wells Fargo? This company needs to be out of business. If Wells Fargo wants to blame some of its employees for the problem, then the company clearly doesn’t know how to hire ethical people. Regardless, it’s time for this company to be done.