Sen. Elizabeth Warren calls for removal of 12 Wells Fargo board members

CNBC ^ | June 19, 2017 | Jeff Cox

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is calling for the ouster of 12 board members at Wells Fargo due to the fake accounts scandal that has rocked the bank.

In a letter sent Monday to Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, the Massachusetts Democrat said the scandal has "revealed severe problems with the bank's risk management practices." Warren said the central bank has the authority under federal statute to remove the members who were on the board as the matter transpired.

"We have received the letter and plan to respond," a Fed spokesman told CNBC.

In an agreement with multiple authorities last September, Wells agreed to pay a $185 million fine in conjunction with a scandal in which some 2 million client accounts were created without the customers' knowledge.

More accounts may be involved, according to subsequent allegations.

Even after paying the fine, Wells has continued to undergo reputational damage amid congressional inquiries and additional disclosures

Warren, who has been a harsh critic, pointed out in the letter multiple instances where she believes the board at Wells failed customers.

"The fake accounts scandal cost Wells Fargo customers millions of dollars in unauthorized fees and damaged many of their credit scores," the senator wrote. "The scandal also revealed severe problems with the bank's risk management practices — problems that justify the Federal Reserve's removal of all responsible Board members."

Wells Fargo did not respond to a request for comment. Wells Fargo shares gained about 1.1 percent in early trading, about in line with the sector.

Warren did not limit her criticism to Wells — she also said the Fed "has done nothing to date" to punish the bank "despite its ample statutory authority."

"I urge you to use the tools Congress has given you to remove the responsible board members and protect the continued safety and soundness of one of the country's largest banks," she wrote.

The scandal arose as bank employees sought to meet aggressive sales demands. Employees would enroll customers in various programs without their consent in order to make quotas that have since been disbanded.

Some 5,300 employees have been terminated as a result, and the bank also has a new CEO, Timothy J. Sloan, who took over for John Stumpf.

For the Fed to act, it would need to establish that any individual board member's actions were unsafe or unsound to the bank. The Fed likely would need to initiate an enforcement action and prove its case.

Yellen told Congress during testimony shortly after the scandal broke in September that the Fed is reviewing all operations for large banks and believes that in cases of wrongdoing, "senior management (should) be held accountable."

[BookmanTheJanitor]

The fake Indian who appropriated a culture/committed a fraud for personal benefit should just shut the hell up.

[Olog-hai]

“Blind squirrel finds nut. Film at eleven.”

[ladyjane]

Elizabeth Warren - she and her brother flipped houses during the real estate downturn. Does she feel guilty for all those people who were forced out of their homes so she could make thousands of dollars?

Elizabeth Warren - she lied to get her job at Harvard and then she practiced law in Massachusetts with NO LICENSE! She was never a member of the bar in MA,

Dishonest, money grubbing, lying squaw.

BTW, she says she is for the little guy. When she practiced law (illegally) did she ever represent the little guy? No. She only represented large corporations. $$$$

[davius]

Wells Fargo does suck but not so hard as Fauxcahontas.

[JimSEA]

If it does, I’m with you. White collar criminals.

[Viking2002]

'Does agreeing with Senator Warren that these people need to pay make me a bad person?'

No, it doesn't. As much as I'd like to see Warren have a stroke on national TV and watch her face turn blue (so does my wife - she's 1/3rd real, scalp-your-ass Cherokee, and would gut her like a fish for myriad cultural and social reasons), I agree on a firsthand basis. Wells f*ucked up our bank account, f*cked me and my company out of a long-term contract and cost us three hundred jobs through back-door subterfuge, and then f*cked with the terms of the mortgage on our house to the point where we had to retain lawyers to set them back on their haunches. I'd like to see them all hung by the neck then burned to ash in a common pit, then dump lime on their bones and bulldoze it over. Wells Fargo should be ended.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

I wonder if Wells Fargo people didn’t give her enough election money.

[CashMoneyJC]

How is it possible to be 1/3 Cherokee? One is either full-blooded, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64, etc., etc., but unless I’m missing something, it’s impossible to be 1/3.

[Viking2002]

Her maternal grandmother was 1/2 Cherokee. Her maternal grandfather was full-blooded, and dressed like it, from my information. They lived on a reservation somewhere out west. I just did the mental gymnastics to pull the 1/3rd out of my dung sluice. But I was always a lousy math student, so extrapolate from there.

[vette6387]

I agree with everything you say, and we have been on the receiving end of WF’s abusive behavior a time or two ourselves. That said, they are just one of any number of the “too big to fail banks,” that abuse their customers, along with ALL of the major Phone Companies, and the Oil Companies as well. Big is just plain BAD! Our personal experience with WF is that no matter how hard we have tried, they always come back like a bad penny. Twice, we’ve left WF for a smaller bank only to have WF buy them. We have remortgaged our home with a broker when WF refused to entertain a refi, only to have them buy the new loan in short order. The list for us is longer than there is paper here to write it on! Bank of America is no better.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Every time I see Warren I think of Old Lodge Skins (Chief Dan George) in "Little Big Man".

The only trouble with snake women is they copulate with horses, which makes them strange to me. She say's she doesn't. That's why I call her "Doesn't Like Horses". But, of course, she's lying.

[Viking2002]

Two words: community banking. If such a thing exists in 2017. Wells, Citi, BoA, et al, are all for-profit Globalist parasites feeding on us, and should be dissolved. In acid, if necessary. We've turned such a blind, naive eye to this industry and the political apparatchiks who serve them for so long, I don't think we'll ever get hometown, spit-and-a-handshake banking back.

[vette6387]

Agreed! A.P. Gianinni is spinning in his grave over how his “People’s Bank,” The Bank of Italy (nee B of A) has been transformed into what it is today. Ditto for “The Stagecoach Guys” and their history of helping to build the West. Don’t know the history of Citi but It used to be The City Bank of New York, and I just imagine that when is was, it was a better place!

[Jimmy Valentine]

I hate to agree with her but she is right. The short run maximizes got loose in the banking business during the 1980’s and threw out the rules. Wells Fargo and other big banks perverted their sales culture beyond reason. Management needs to pay the price not the abused foot soldiers of retail banking.

[RKBA Democrat]

Smoke and mirrors. Fauxahontas wants a few token scalps. Note however that she isn’t pushing to break up the too big to fail banks.

[VRWC For Truth]

Get back in your teepee and make me a sammich, squaw ...

[Deplorable American1776]

The stockholders of Wells Fargo (including me) should fire the board at the next meeting of the board. Squaw SpeakingBull is overreaching as usual.

[okie 54]

What is good for the private sector surely must be good for the public sector. How many people in Washington need to be removed for phony reports?

[BlackbirdSST]

The WF check must have bounced.

[hattend]

You said it very succinctly.

My post was going to be a few paragraphs.