2016-09-30

Holding Wall Street Accountable, Investigating Wells Fargo Bank (video)

Wells Fargo CEO to Forfeit $41 Million:

U.S. House Committee on Financial Services Hearing: “Holding Wall Street Accountable: Investigating Wells Fargo’s Opening of Unauthorized Customer Accounts”

Thursday, September 29, 2016 (10:00 AM) - U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Financial Services Hearing: “Holding Wall Street Accountable: Investigating Wells Fargo’s Opening of Unauthorized Customer Accounts.” The hearing video above starts @18:12. Chair of the Committee is Jeb Hensarling (R-TX). The Committee's Ranking Member is Maxine Waters (D-CA). Other members of the committee are listed here.

Prepared Testimony (pdf) of the witness: John Stumpf, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Wells Fargo & Company

Note to ICANN stakeholders and ICANN directors: the above video is a good example of what real oversight of, and holding accountable a corporation and its management, actually looks like. Also note the references to "denial" in a dysfunctional organization culture, and using 'forced' arbitration clauses to make redress almost impossible, and other themes equally applicable to ICANN.

Wells Fargo & Company:
  • Stock exchange: Symbol  |  NYSE: WFC
  • Domain:  WellsFargo.com
  • Area served: Worldwide
  • Global Headquarters: San Francisco, California, United States
  • Slogan:  Together we'll go far
  • Industry:  Banking, Financial services
  • Number of employees: 265,200 (2015) [source]
  • Founders: Henry Wells & William Fargo, March 18, 1852
  • Predecessors include: Crocker National Bank; First Interstate Bancorp; Bank of North America; First Security Corporation; Norwest Corporation; Wachovia
  • Divisions: Wells Fargo Rail (Domain: rail.wellsfargo.com) largest rail car and locomotive leasing company in North America with over 175,000 rail cars and 1,800 locomotives
  • Largest shareholders:  Berkshire Hathaway 9.50%; Vanguard Group 5.71%; State Street 3.70%
  • Additional info via Wikipedia:
    Revenue US$86.057 billion (2015)
    Operating income US$33.84 billion (2015)
    Profit US$22.894 billion (2015)
    Total assets US$1.849 trillion (2016)
    Total equity US$193.891 billion (2015)
Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) 3-month chart
Financial Services Committee Memorandum (pdf): "... On September 8, 2016, Wells Fargo entered into consent orders with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and the City of Los Angeles for alleged unsafe and unsound sales practices, unfair and abusive practices, and unlawful, unfair, and fraudulent sales and related business acts and practices. While neither admitting nor denying the allegations as part of the consent orders, Wells Fargo agreed to pay $190 million in collective fines and restitution. The consent orders asserted that Wells Fargo had fired 5,300 employees over a five year period for opening hundreds of thousands of deposit and credit card accounts without customers’ knowledge or consent. This was allegedly caused by the setting of aggressive sales quotas, pressure from managers to meet those quotas, and inadequate monitoring by Wells Fargo ..."


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