Posted on 02/22/2020 7:05:03 AM PST by Starcitizen
Feb 13 (Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co is planning to eliminate about 700 workers in Manila, Philippines, and move a portion of these roles to India that already houses nearly 12,000 tech employees, the U.S. bank's spokesman said on Thursday.
The eliminations of the staff was earlier reported by Bloomberg, which also said the lender is telling about 650 of its tech workers in the United States that they will be required to relocate to a bigger market to keep their jobs.
The bank laid off more than 200 employees in its U.S. lending divisions in 2019, as it reacted to business trends and restructured some units, sources told Reuters in October.
(Excerpt) Read more at ph.news.yahoo.com ...
Time for a credit union.
Time to start rounding up and arresting the C-level suites of these companies for treason.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/wells-fargo-agrees-to-pay-3-billion-to-settle-probes-into-fake-accounts-scandal
Three BILLION is more than a skid-mark.
Exactly what I was coming to point out.
Time for the US to add banks to critical national infrastructure and only allow Americans to be employed at these banks.
No more outsourcing of American financial data, and no more bringing in H1B foreign trash to perform jobs that has access to American financial data
It would not surprise me that that’s how scam artists in India operate as they are likely able to hack into North American banks that have operations there and steal customers’ information and use that in turn to contact people in the United States and Canada.
I dumped WF a,couple of years ago and don’t miss them.
Credit Unions are everywhere it seems and I am a member of several.
This is why H1b must die.
Pres. Trump will be in India on Monday. I wonder what they’ll try to sell him?
I’ll bet it won’t be good for the American Tech workers...
Wells Fargo Agrees to Pay $3 Billion to Resolve Criminal and Civil Investigations into Sales Practices Involving the Opening of Millions of Accounts without Customer Authorization
justice.gov ^ | February 21, 2020 | DOJ
FR Posted on 2/21/2020, 6:11:04 PM by ransomnote
$3 Billion Payment Result of Deferred Prosecution Agreement in Criminal Matter, Settlement of Civil Claims under FIRREA and Resolution of SEC Proceedings
Wells Fargo & Company and its subsidiary, Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., have agreed to pay $3 billion to resolve their potential criminal and civil liability stemming from a practice between 2002 and 2016 of pressuring employees to meet unrealistic sales goals that led thousands of employees to provide millions of accounts or products to customers under false pretenses or without consent, often by creating false records or misusing customers’ identities, the Department of Justice announced today.
As part of the agreements with the United States Attorney’s Offices for the Central District of California and the Western District of North Carolina, the Commercial Litigation Branch of the Civil Division, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, Wells Fargo admitted that it collected millions of dollars in fees and interest to which the Company was not entitled, harmed the credit ratings of certain customers, and unlawfully misused customers’ sensitive personal information, including customers’ means of identification.
“When companies cheat to compete, they harm customers and other competitors,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Michael D. Granston of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division. “This settlement holds Wells Fargo accountable for tolerating fraudulent conduct that is remarkable both for its duration and scope, and for its blatant disregard of customer’s private information. The Civil Division will continue to use all available tools to protect the American public from fraud and abuse, including misconduct by or against their financial institutions.”
“Our settlement with Wells Fargo, and the $3 billion monetary penalty imposed on the bank, go far beyond ‘the cost of doing business.’ They are appropriate given the staggering size, scope and duration of Wells Fargo’s illicit conduct, which spanned well over a decade,” said U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray for the Western District of North Carolina. “When a reputable institution like Wells Fargo caves to the pernicious forces of greed, and puts its own interests ahead of those of the customers it claims to serve, my office will not sit idle. Today’s announcement should serve as a stark reminder that no institution is too big, too powerful, or too well-known to be held accountable and face enforcement action for its wrongdoings.”
“This case illustrates a complete failure of leadership at multiple levels within the Bank. Simply put, Wells Fargo traded its hard-earned reputation for short-term profits, and harmed untold numbers of customers along the way,” said U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna for the Central District of California. “We are hopeful that this $3 billion penalty, along with the personnel and structural changes at the Bank, will ensure that such conduct will not reoccur.”
“Our office is committed to bringing to justice those who deliberately falsify and fabricate bank records in order to deceive regulators and the public,” said Inspector General Mark Bialek of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. “I commend our agent and our law enforcement partners for their hard work and persistence that led to today’s announcement.”
“Today’s multi-billion-dollar penalty holds Wells Fargo accountable for its unlawful sales practices and pressure tactics in which it deceived millions of clients, thus causing substantial hardship for the very individuals who placed their trust in the institution,” said Inspector General Jay N. Lerner Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. “The FDIC Office of Inspector General is committed to working with our law enforcement partners in order to investigate such financial crimes that harm customers and investors, and undermine the integrity of the banking sector.”
The criminal investigation into false bank records and identity theft is being resolved with a deferred prosecution agreement in which Wells Fargo will not be prosecuted during the three-year term of the agreement if it abides by certain conditions, including continuing to cooperate with further government investigations. Wells Fargo also entered a civil settlement agreement under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA) based on Wells Fargo’s creation of false bank records. FIRREA authorizes the federal government to seek civil penalties against financial institutions that violate various predicate criminal offenses, including false bank records. Wells Fargo also agreed to the SEC instituting a cease-and-desist proceeding finding violations of Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The $3 billion payment resolves all three matters, and includes a $500 million civil penalty to be distributed by the SEC to investors.
The 16-page statement of facts accompanying the deferred prosecution agreement and civil settlement agreement outlines a course of conduct over 15 years at Well Fargo’s Community Bank, which was then the largest operating segment of Wells Fargo, consistently generating more than half of the company’s revenue. The statement of facts outlines top Community Bank leaders’ knowledge of the conduct. As part of the statement of facts, Wells Fargo admitted the following:
Beginning in 1998, Wells Fargo increased its focus on sales volume and reliance on annual sales growth. A core part of this sales model was the “cross-sell strategy” to sell existing customers additional financial products. It was “the foundation of our business model,” according to Wells Fargo. In its 2012 Vision and Values statement, Wells Fargo stated: “We start with what the customer needs – not with what we want to sell them.”
But, in contrast to Wells Fargo’s public statements and disclosures about needs-based selling, the Community Bank implemented a volume-based sales model in which employees were directed and pressured to sell large volumes of products to existing customers, often with little regard to actual customer need or expected use. The Community Bank’s onerous sales goals and accompanying management pressure led thousands of its employees to engage in unlawful conduct – including fraud, identity theft and the falsification of bank records – and unethical practices to sell product of no or little value to the customer.
Many of these practices were referred to within Wells Fargo as “gaming.” Gaming strategies varied widely, but included using existing customers’ identities – without their consent – to open checking and savings, debit card, credit card, bill pay and global remittance accounts. From 2002 to 2016, gaming practices included forging customer signatures to open accounts without authorization, creating PINs to activate unauthorized debit cards, moving money from millions of customer accounts to unauthorized accounts in a practice known internally as “simulated funding,” opening credit cards and bill pay products without authorization, altering customers’ true contact information to prevent customers from learning of unauthorized accounts and prevent Wells Fargo employees from reaching customers to conduct customer satisfaction surveys, and encouraging customers to open accounts they neither wanted or needed.
The top managers of the Community Bank were aware of the unlawful and unethical gaming practices as early as 2002, and they knew that the conduct was increasing due to onerous sales goals and pressure from management to meet these goals. One internal investigator in 2004 called the problem a “growing plague.” The following year, another internal investigator said the problem was “spiraling out of control.” Even after senior managers in the Community Bank directly called into question the implementation of the cross-sell strategy, Community Bank senior leadership refused to alter the sales model, which contained unrealistic sales goals and a focus on low-quality secondary accounts.
Despite knowledge of the illegal sales practices, Community Bank senior leadership failed to take sufficient action to prevent and reduce the incidence of such practices. Senior leadership of the Community Bank minimized the problems to Wells Fargo management and its board of directors, by casting the problem as driven by individual misconduct instead of the sales model itself. Community Bank senior leadership viewed negative sales quality and integrity as a necessary byproduct of the increased sales and as merely the cost of doing business.
* * *
The government’s decision to enter into the deferred prosecution agreement and civil settlement took into account a number of factors, including Wells Fargo’s extensive cooperation and substantial assistance with the government’s investigations; Wells Fargo’s admission of wrongdoing; its continued cooperation in the investigations; its prior settlements in a series of regulatory and civil actions; and remedial actions, including significant changes in Wells Fargo’s management and its board of directors, an enhanced compliance program, and significant work to identify and compensate customers who may have been victims. The deferred prosecution agreement will be in effect for three years.
The global settlement also reflects coordination between the Department of Justice and the SEC to ensure a resolution that appropriately addresses the severity of the defendants’ conduct while avoiding the imposition of fines and penalties that are unnecessarily duplicative.
The deferred prosecution agreement was handled by the United States Attorney’s Offices in Los Angeles and Charlotte, with investigative support from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation - Office of Inspector General, the Federal Housing Finance Agency - Office of Inspector General, the Office of Inspector General for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the United States Postal Inspection Service.
The civil settlement agreement was the result of a coordinated effort between the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.
Attachment(s):
Download Wells Fargo Exhibit A Statement of Facts
Topic(s):
Financial Fraud
Component(s):
Civil Division
USAO - California, Central
USAO - North Carolina, Western
Press Release Number: 20-219
I’ve been saying this for a long time. Having worked for major banks, people would be shocked at how many foreigners they employ right here in America instead of Americans. Its sickening. They are abusing the hell out of the H1b visa system to undercut Americans.
That’s the ONE issue that Trump has the potential of severely screwing over the American middle-class hard. Wonder how much more additional Indian H1B trash he will agree to letting into the US?
Remember if S.386 passes, it’s not only STEM, IT and TECH jobs Americans will be bypassed for.
Any white or grey-collar job will be at risk. Some of us are too old to retrain for a new career, like in the trades, as has been mentioned ad-nauseam here by some. And even after retraining, earning 1/4 to 1/3 of what we are earning now. It will take a decade or more to skill up in order to be able to earn at our former salaries. Granted, salaries are great in the oil-patch, but honestly, most of us just are not physically cut-out to work in heavy manual labor-intensive industries.
I’ve seen it in the back offices of banks for years; now you see it with tellers. Americans need not apply.
In a nearby branch, it is odd to see a line of Third Worlders behind the counter; it was obviously built for Westerners, and they can barely see over the top...
I worked there until last year in the mortgage area. They had just moved jobs to India that ordered appraisals and home insurance binders for mortgage loans in process.
My local loan processor had previously been doing this role.
So a insurance company in small town Minnesota would now get a call from “Bob” (actually Ravi in Hydrabad) asking for a updated insurance binder.
Our local Dem congressperson Cindy Axne actually has been trying to do one good thing. Se has called out WF for this outsourcing.
And Wells Fargo India had been processing all tax returns for mortgage loans for several years to calculate income for self employed mortgage applicants.
Excellent comment!
No more outsourcing of American financial data
Yes.
If there really were thousands of superior STEM and white collar workers in India and China who were dying to come over to USA and work for less than the prevailing wage, and at the same time, AMERICAN workers sucked and had no talent, I could see using H1b’s.
But we all know not only is this not true, but is an insult to American workers to even agree to. Donald, consider your good instincts!
Might as well call us all debased or deplorables.
This: Business Pushes Trump to Import Indian H-1B Graduates in Swap for U.S. Exports
This foreign H1B scum is only superior to an American 3rd Grader (and thats with the massive cheating they all use to land jobs here in the US. That and massive racism, castism, cronyism and nepotism once ONE gets into position of making hiring decisions.
Let’s all hope that Trump doesn’t push to give more jobs to Indians.
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