Elizabeth Warren's epic takedown of Wells Fargo CEO

CNN Money ^ | 09/20/2016 | Matt Egan

[Vermont Lt]

That guy was a clown.

I worked in a bank managing a very large sales group. I know what they did, and how they did it. There is no way that all happened without it showing up on internal audits.

This was bad management and amateur hour sales management. When an agent would try to pull this crap, the front line supervisor would know in 24 hours. The person would be fired in 24 1/2 hours. Wells Fargo rewarded their people.

If I were a shareholder I would be looking for this clown’s head.

[Vermont Lt]

They are really not presenting it accurately. They were not accounts per se. They were selling products.

Say you were opening a checking account. The agent would then get you a debit card, overdraft protection, and online banking. Those are three more “products”. You would probably never see a fee for any of that stuff. Although the credit check for overdraft would be a hit on your credit score.

It’s when they rolled in Savings accounts or money markets, and credit cards that would really screw you up. Linking all of those things could cause fees if you over drew one account into another.

Normally this stuff was caught by audits and by accounts being idle and not funded. The funny thing is that an idle checking account is going to cost the bank between $4 and $6 a month in processing fees.

All of this smells like a horrible sales environment gone crazy. The sad part is that an agent can make good money if they just pitch the right products. It takes longer to do it wrong. You could do it right twice in that time.

[Wolfie]

I’m no fan of Warren. She is an opportunistic liar and a fraud. But she is right about Wells Fargo.

Those big banks do terrible things. And when they get caught, they pay a small fine. Everyone involves gets a golden parachute and lives (and laughs) happily ever after.

Wells Fargo employees were setting up fake bank accounts, using the names of real customers. Those customers were paying fees on accounts they didn’t know they had. That is theft. Warren is right. People should be going to jail here.

That's not how it works. We don't like Warren, so the crooks who run the banks must go unpunished. It's a tidy system.