Tag: Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo has received its fair share of public scrutiny lately due to lax oversight and various legal violations associated with overseeing banking practices and the bank’s sham accounts scandal. Starting around 2004, internal investigations revealed an increase in “sales gaming cases,” whereby bankers were moving money into and out of customer accounts in order to make sales goals. All in all, it is estimated that Wells Fargo employees opened approximately 1.5 million bank accounts and applied for more than 560,000 credit cards that may not have been authorized by customers.

Perhaps most disturbingly, bank executives (most notably, the former chairman/chief executive officer and former head of the retail branch network) swept evidence of these practices under the rug, claiming that there were no serious, negative repercussions for customers. Many employees also reported feeling significant pressure to engage in these practices in order to meet sales goals.