Case Study Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo’s “Gutless Leadership” Wells Fargo is one of the largest banks in the United States, with “…more than 8,600 locations [and] 13,000 ATMs” (Wells Fargo Today). Millions of Americans trust them with their finances. However, after a federal investigation, Wells Fargo has admitted to opening up to two million accounts without customers’ permission. While this had financial implications for many customers, this scandal most heavily affected Wells Fargo’s low-level employees. Sales employees were faced with unrealistic quotas and enormous pressure from management. In podcast episode “The Wells Fargo Hustle” by Chris Arnold and Robert Smith, former Wells Fargo employee Ashley describes the poor working conditions and illegal activities …show more content…
As employees faced pressure to reach quotas, they found ways to cheat the system. If a customer came in to open an account, the employee would simply make it two or three. The intense pressure placed on employees created an environment that not only rewarded dishonesty and malpractice, but made it necessary to maintain employment. Many employees attempted to report these illegal practices to the Wells Fargo ethics line, but action was never taken and the problem escalated. Many employees who attempted to report the crimes were fired and unable to find work due to a “black mark” Wells Fargo placed on their U5. This is an industry form to document incidents of corruption within bank employees (Arnold and Smith). Wells Fargo responded to the scandal by firing 5,300 low-level employees. However, the problem was much bigger than that. After numerous reports to the ethics line, it is almost certain that Wells Fargo officials had some knowledge of the scandal. Additionally, the inaccurate U5 forms “...confirm that Wells Fargo had ample information about the scope of fraudulent sales practices” (Cowley). Senator Elizabeth Warren “…publicly condemned [CEO John Stumpf] for his ‘gutless leadership’” in preventing and handling corruption within his company (Egan, Wattles, and
Wells Fargo Research Paper
754 Words | 4 PagesWells Fargo has been in business for over 160 years and was founded on March 18, 1852, by Henry Wells and William Fargo. The company opened its first office, in San Francisco, on July 1852. Wells Fargo served the West with banking needs, which included gold and paper bank drafts, and offered quick delivery of gold or other valuables. In1855, the first of many financial dilemmas took place when a drought made it impossible to mine for gold, and this caused almost 200 businesses in San Francisco to fail, but Wells Fargo didn’t fail, they prospered. In the early1860s, Wells Fargo acquired almost all the stage lines from the Missouri River to California, giving them a monopoly on transcontinental delivery services.
Ms. Fortin Case Summary
312 Words | 2 PagesHer supervisor claimed that customers said they received poor customer service from Ms. Fortin. In 1994, the company decided to restructured its company finance and a new manager took over Ms. Fortin’s department. Staff reduction was part of the change; consequently, Ms. Fortin was one of the first employee to get laid off. Unfortunately, when the new supervisor decided to laid off Ms. Fortin, she had no prior knowledge of Ms. Fortin’s union activity.
Earl Jones Case Study Essay
572 Words | 3 PagesJones tried and played his cards right by using the system to his advantage and only going to small suburban branches, however red flags should still have risen at the suspicious activity occurring in the accounts. Jones clients believed that their money was being held in a trust account, in which Jones was handling money on behalf of his clients yet he held all of the money in his personal accounts this is something the bank was aware of. The fifth estate obtained documents of a bank memo proving that they were aware of Jones using his personal account for business, the matter was dropped (CBC,
Wells Fargo: Commitment To The Hispanic And Latino Community
911 Words | 4 PagesToday, Wells Fargo is widely recognized for its commitment to the Hispanic and Latino community. This commitment however, is not a recent phenomenon and dates back to before the turn of the century. Since its founding in 1852, Wells Fargo had encouraged team members to treat all customers with courtesy and respect. The once informal policy became company standard in 1888 when agents and managers were required to show “proper respect to all. Let them be men, women, children, rich or poor, white or black…”
During The Great Recession Wells Fargo
128 Words | 1 Pages1) -During the Great Recession Wells Fargo targeted black people and convinced them to take out subprime loans. Such actions lead to the result of Wells Fargo being sued in 2010 for discrimination and a year later settling the suit paying more than 174 million. -The early economy was built on slave labor. Not only did slaves build the Capitol building, but they built the White House too.
Wells Fargo A Bank In The 1850's
989 Words | 4 Pages“The most polite and gentlemanly treatment of all customers, however insignificant in their business, is insisted upon. Proper respect must be shown to all- let them be men, women, or children, rich or poor, white or black- it must not be forgotten that the company is dependant on these same people for its business.” When Henry Wells was alive, there were 8,000 workers at Wells Fargo. Today, there are 150,000 or more employees at Wells Fargo. There are 6,000 branches and from 1990-1998, their stock went up 1,197% (Smith).
Jp Morgan Chase Bank Fraud Essay
709 Words | 3 PagesJPMorgan Chase Bank has faced several lawsuits in recent years. They have been hit with cases concerning fraudulent misrepresentation, bribery, and many things in between. By studying the accusations the company has faced, one receives a better understanding of who is really handling their money. An act of fraudulent misrepresentation cost JPMorgan the fine of a lifetime.
Wells Fargo: The Scandal Of Wells Fargo
187 Words | 1 PagesAs all this came to fruition, the bank was penalized with $185 million dollars in fines and other penalties by county and federal organizations (Blake, 2016). On top of getting slapped with millions of dollars worth of fines, Wells Fargo fired 5,300 employees that may have been involved in the scandal (Blake, 2016). Some of Wells Fargo’s top executives where asked to step down in court proceedings as well as in other meetings with federal agencies. There have also been several lawsuits filed against Wells Fargo by customers and former employees of the company that feel that they were wronged and bombarded with threats. Thankfully, this scandal did not affect most of Wells Fargo’s clients.
The Patriot Act Essay
388 Words | 2 PagesThe terrorist attacks on our country that occurred on September 11, 2001 were, without a doubt, the most horrific and deadly in our history. In the aftermath of these attacks, the United States Congress moved quickly to pass legislation that untied the hands of law enforcement in an effort to make investigating terrorist organizations easier. On October 26, 2001, a mere 45 days after the 9/11 tragedy, Congress passed the USAPATRIOT (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) Act. The overall purpose of the USA PATRIOT Act was: “To deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes
Wells Fargo Research Paper
917 Words | 4 PagesThose people were Henry Wells and William G. Fargo. Wells Fargo is a global financial aid corporation . Wachovia National Banks had Wells Fargo competition until they bought Wachovia and combined them together. The competition Wells Fargo dealt with helped expand their banks across the US, which helps more consumers go toward Wells Fargo. It was a new bank in the pre 1800s and not a lot of consumers were trustworthy to Wells Fargo such as customers and investors to Wells Fargo.
Eileen Foster Case Summary
428 Words | 2 PagesEileen Foster was the Executive Vice President of Fraud Risk Management at Countrywide, and later served in the role of Senior Vice President of the Mortgage Fraud Investigation Division at Bank of America after the two companies merged (Foster, n.d.). It was her responsibility to investigate mortgage origination fraud and reporting suspicious activity to regulators and the company’s Board of Directors. After several years of seeing a lot of suspicious activity and blatant acts of fraud she found that the company was playing party to this activity. Any employee who reported fraud and wrongdoing to Employee Relations were being transferred, demoted, harassed or terminated. When Foster reported her concerns to Countrywide’s Internal audit to investigate, the company not only chose to conceal her allegations from Bank of America, but it also directed employee relations to investigate Foster for wrong doing.
Blackhawk Bank Interview Paper
1038 Words | 5 PagesFrom my personal experience as I have an account with Blackhawk Bank, I can say that they are doing a great job in regards of complying with the organization’s vision. For instance, in late September –early October, I went to Ukraine and Croatia without notifying my bank about it. As I made some online payments with my debit card there, upon my arrival to the USA, I received a letter from the bank, stating that in order to protect security and safety of the information, I will be receiving a new debit card as some suspicious activity has been monitored to be originating from my account. It did not create me any inconveniences as I got a new card within a few days and was able to use my old one up until that point and it was mindful of them to make this step just in case something was wrong. It did not cost me anything, made me feel protected, and additionally, I got a completely new debit
Wells Fargo Scandal Summary
1237 Words | 5 PagesLastly, the SEC will scrutinize any securities fraud that may have been committed as a result of withholding private information (insider trading) to investors due to possible accounting malpractice. Currently, the SEC and Department of Justice results are still pending the ongoing investigation. Tomi Kilgore of MarketWatch reported “Wells Fargo investigation into sales practices should be completed before the April 2017 shareholder meeting.” Likewise, Wells Fargo responded following the mandates of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency by opening
Wells Fargo Ethical Theories
468 Words | 2 PagesUnder this approach, an action is considered morally bad because of some characteristic of the action itself, not just because the product of the action is bad. Wells Fargo unethical practices demonstrates unethical behavior, under deontological ethical theories as its employees duty to operate in an honest and fair fashion , in providing services to the public. Wells Fargo codes of conduct does not permit sales practices of these sort, therefore the employees who participated in these practices made unethical decisions. Unfortunately there was a wrong-doing on a massive scale. The acts of unethical behavior were conducted by both the employees and management.
Lehman Brothers: Financial Fraud In 2008
2178 Words | 9 PagesExecutive Summary Lehman Brothers were an investment bank involved in transactions worth billions of dollars and one of the most powerful investment banks in the world. Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008 following bad investment in the sub-prime mortgage market and used bad accounting practices called Repo 105 transactions to try and cover up the bad assets. This report sets out the use of the fraud triangle when describing the actions which led to the collapse. The pressure applied on the bank, the opportunity due to the lack of regulation to carry out the actions and the ability of the bank to rationalise their decision making.
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