Wells Fargo

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Wells Fargo & amp; The company is an American multinational financial services company headquartered in San Francisco, California, with headquarters all over the country. It is the second largest bank in the world by market capitalization and the third largest bank in the US with total assets. In July 2015, Wells Fargo became the world's largest bank by market capitalization, after passing ICBC, before slipping behind JPMorgan Chase in September 2016, amid a scandal involving the creation of more than 2 million fake bank accounts by Wells Fargo employees. Wells Fargo goes beyond Citigroup Inc. became the third-largest US bank by assets by the end of 2015 but fell behind Bank of America to third place in bank deposits in 2017. Wells Fargo remains the second-largest bank on credit cards and home mortgage services.

The company's main operating subsidiary is a national bank. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., which designates its main office as Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Wells Fargo in its current form is the result of a merger between Wells Fargo & amp; The Minneapolis-based company and Norwest Corporation in 1998 and the subsequent 2008 acquisition of Wachovia based in Charlotte. After the merger, the company moved its headquarters to Wells Fargo headquarters in San Francisco and merged its subsidiaries with Wells Fargo subsidiary in Sioux Falls. Together with JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup, Wells Fargo is one of the "Big Four Banks" of the United States. By December 2017, it has 5,800 retail branches and 13,000 automated teller machines. The company operates in 35 countries and has over 70 million subscribers worldwide.

In February 2014, Wells Fargo was named the world's most valuable bank brand for the second year in a row in Banker's and Brand Finance studies of the top 500 banking brands. In 2016, Wells Fargo was ranked 7th in Forbes Magazine Global 2000's list of the world's largest publicly listed companies and ranked 27th on the list of the largest Fortune 500 companies in the United States. By 2015, the company is ranked 22nd as the world's most admired company, and the 7th most respected company in the world. As of October 2015, the company has an AA- credit rating. However, for a brief period in 2007, the company was the only bank with AAA ratings, reflecting the highest credit ratings of the two companies.

On Feb. 2, 2018, the US Federal Reserve banned Wells Fargo from furthering its asset base, based on years of abuse, until Wells Fargo corrected its internal problems in favor of the Federal Reserve. In April 2018, The Wall Street Journal reported that the US Department of Labor has launched an investigation into whether Wells Fargo is pushing its customers into a more expensive retirement plan as well as to a Wells Fargo managed pension fund. self. Then in May 2018, The Wall Street Journal reported that Wells Fargo business banking group has changed documents about business clients in 2017 and early 2018. In June 2018, Wells Fargo began retreat from retail banking in the Midwestern. United States by announcing the sale of all locations of its physical bank branches in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio to Flagstar Corp.

Video Wells Fargo

Current operation

Wells Fargo describes three different business segments when reporting results: Community Banking, Wholesale, and Wealth Banking, Brokers and Retirement.

Community banking

The Community Banking segment includes Regional Banking, Diversified Products, and Consumer Savings groups, as well as Wells Fargo Customer Connection (formerly Wells Fargo Phone Bank, Wachovia Direct Access, National Business Banking Center and Credit Card Customer Service). Wells Fargo also has about 2,000 independent mortgage branches across the country. There are mini-branches located inside other buildings, which are almost exclusively grocery stores, which usually contain ATMs, basic teller services, and licensing rooms, offices for private meetings with customers. In March 2017, Wells Fargo announced plans to offer smartphone-based transactions with mobile wallets including Wells Fargo Wallet, Android Pay and Samsung Pay.

Consumer loans

In Q3 2011, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage is the largest retail mortgage lender in the United States, which comes from one in four home loans. Wells Fargo Service $ 1.8 trillion in home mortgages, the second largest service portfolio in the US. Reported in 2012 Wells Fargo reached a 30% market share for US mortgages, however, CEO John Stumpf said the figure is misleading as about half of it. it represents a smaller loan aggregation that is then sold on the secondary market. By 2013, its market share is close to 22%; where eight percentage points are aggregation.

Personal loan loan Wells Fargo

Private student loans Wells Fargo is available for students to pay for tuition, such as tuition, books, computers, or housing. Loans are available for undergraduate, career and community programs, graduate schools, law schools and medical schools. Wells Fargo also provides private student loan consolidation and student loans for parents.

Wholesale banking

Its wholesale banking segment contains products sold to large and medium-sized commercial enterprises, as well as to consumers on a wholesale basis. These include lending, treasury management, mutual funds, asset-based loans, commercial real estate, corporate and institutional trust services, and capital markets and investment banking services through Wells Fargo Securities. A very lucrative field for Wells Fargo, however, is an asset-based loan: loans to large companies use accounts receivable and inventory as collateral, although less traditional assets are often included in collateral packages. Historically, these types of loans have been made when normal fund-raising routes, such as the Capital Market or unsecured bank loans, have been exhausted. The main business unit associated with this activity is Wells Fargo Capital Finance. Wells Fargo also owns Eastdil Secured, which is described as a "real estate investment bank", but is essentially one of the largest commercial real estate brokers for very large transactions (such as the purchase and sale of large A-Class office buildings in the center of business districts across United States of America).

Loan apparatus

Wells Fargo has various divisions that finance and rent equipment for different types of companies. One such venture is Wells Fargo Rail, which in 2015 approves the purchase of GE Capital Rail Services and joins First Union Rail. By the end of 2015, it was announced that Wells Fargo will purchase three GE units that focus on financing business loan equipment.

Wealth Management and Investment

Wells Fargo offers investment products through its subsidiaries, Wells Fargo Investments, LLC and Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC, as well as through national broker/dealer companies. Mutual funds are offered under the brand name Wells Fargo Advantage Funds. The company also serves high-value individuals through private banks and family wealth groups.

Wells Fargo Advisors is a brokerage subsidiary of Wells Fargo, located in St. Louis. Louis. It is the third largest brokerage company in the United States in the third quarter of 2010 with $ 1.1 trillion worth of client assets under management.

Wells Fargo Advisors became known as Wachovia Securities until May 1, 2009, when it was officially renamed following the acquisition of Wells Fargo over Wachovia Corporation.

Wells Fargo Securities

Wells Fargo Securities ("WFS") is the investment banking division of Wells Fargo & amp; Co The size and financial performance of this group is not openly expressed, but analysts believe that investment banking groups have around 4,500 employees and generate between $ 3 and $ 4 billion annually in investment banking income. In comparison, two of Wells Fargo's biggest competitors, Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase generated approximately $ 5.5 billion and $ 6 billion each in 2011 (excluding sales and trade revenues). The WFS headquarters are in Charlotte, North Carolina, with other US offices in New York, Minneapolis, Boston, Houston, San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well as international offices in London and Hong Kong.

Cross-selling

An important part of Wells Fargo's business strategy is cross selling, the practice of encouraging existing customers to purchase additional banking products. Customers who inquire about their checking account balances can bid mortgages and mortgage holders can offer credit card offers in an effort to increase customer profits to the bank. Other banks have tried to imitate Wells Fargo's cross-selling practices (described by The Wall Street Journal as a difficult sales technique); Forbes magazine describes Wells Fargo as "better than anyone" in practice.

International operations

Wells Fargo provides banking services worldwide, with offices in Hong Kong, London, Dubai, Singapore, Tokyo, Toronto. They operate back-office in India and Philippines with more than 3,000 staff.

Charter

Wells Fargo operates under Charter # 1, the first national bank charter issued in the United States. This Charter was issued to First National Bank of Philadelphia on June 20, 1863, by the Office of Currency Financial Supervisors. Traditionally, the acquiring bank assumes the earliest issued charter number. Thus, the first charter was passed from First National Bank of Philadelphia to Wells Fargo through the acquisition of Wachovia in 2008, which it inherited through one of many acquisitions.

Maps Wells Fargo

History

Wells Fargo History Museum

The company operates 12 museums, best known as the Wells Fargo History Museum, in its corporate buildings in Charlotte, North Carolina, Denver, Colorado, Des Moines, Iowa, Los Angeles, California, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Phoenix, Arizona. , Portland, Oregon, Sacramento, California, and San Francisco, California. The displays include original stagecoaches, photos, gold nuggets and mining artefacts, Pony Express, telegraph equipment and historic bank artifacts. The company also operates a museum about the company's history at the Pony Express Terminal at Old Sacramento State Historic Park in Sacramento, California, which is the company's second office, and the Wells Fargo History Museum in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park in San Diego, California.

Wells Fargo operates the Alaska Heritage Museum in Anchorage, Alaska, which features a large collection of Alaskan Native Artifacts, ivory carvings and baskets, art by Alaska artists, and displays the history of Wells Fargo in the Alaskan Gold Fever era.

Main date

• 1852: Henry Wells and William G. Fargo (Mayor of Buffalo, NY from 1862 to 1863 and again from 1864 to 1865), two founders of American Express, formed Wells Fargo & The company provides express and banking services to California.
• 1860: Wells Fargo controls the Butterfield Overland Mail Company, which leads to the operation of the western part of the Pony Express.
• 1866: "Grand consolidation" united Wells Fargo, Holladay, and Overland Mail stage line under the name of Wells Fargo.
• 1905: Wells Fargo separates banking and express operations; Bank Wells Fargo united with Nevada National Bank to form Wells Fargo Nevada National Bank.
• 1918: As a wartime act, the US government nationalized Wells Fargo's express franchise into a federal agency known as the US Railway Agency (REA). The government took over the express company. Banks began to rebuild but focus on the commercial market. After the war, the REA was privatized and resumed service until 1975.
• 1923: Wells Fargo Nevada joins the Union Trust Company to form Wells Fargo Bank & amp; Union Trust Company.
• 1929: Northwest Bancorporation is formed as a banking association.
• 1954: Wells Fargo & amp; Union Trust shortened its name to Wells Fargo Bank.
• 1960: Wells Fargo joins the American Trust Company to form the Wells Fargo Bank American Trust Company.
• 1962: Wells Fargo American Trust again shortened its name to Wells Fargo Bank.
• 1968: Wells Fargo converted to federal banking charter, became Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
• 1969: Wells Fargo & amp; The parent company was formed, with Wells Fargo Bank as its main subsidiary.
• 1982: Northwest Bancorporation acquired consumer finance company Dial Finance, which was renamed Norwest Financial Service in the following year.
• 1983: Northwest Bancorporation changed its name to Norwest Corporation.
• 1983: White Eagle, the largest US bank robbery currently taking place at Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, Connecticut.
• 1986: Wells Fargo acquires Crocker National Corporation from Midland Bank.
• 1987: Wells Fargo acquires Bank of America's personal trust business.
• 1988: Wells Fargo acquires Barclays Bank of California from Barclays plc.
• 1995: Wells Fargo becomes the first financial services company in the US to offer Internet banking.
• 1996: Wells Fargo acquires First Interstate Bancorp for $ 11.6 billion.
• 1998: Wells Fargo Bank was acquired by Norwest Corporation of Minneapolis. (Norwest is a surviving company; however, he chose to continue his business under the well-known name of Wells Fargo.)
• 2000: Wells Fargo Bank acquires National Bank of Alaska.
• 2000: Wells Fargo acquires First Security Corporation.
• 2001: Wells Fargo acquires H.D. Vest Financial Services for $ 128 million, but sells it in 2015 for $ 580 million.
• 2007: Wells Fargo acquires CIT construction unit.
• 2007: Wells Fargo acquires Sierra Bank Placer.
• 2007: Wells Fargo acquires Greater Bay Bancorp, which has $ 7.4 billion in assets, in a $ 1.5 billion transaction.
• 2008: Wells Fargo acquires United Bancorporation of Wyoming.
• 2008: Wells Fargo earned Century Bancshares of Texas.
• 2008: Wells Fargo acquires Wachovia Corporation.
• 2009: Wells Fargo acquires North Coast Surety Insurance Services.
• 2012: Wells Fargo acquires Merlin Securities.
• 2012: Wells Fargo acquires stake in The Rock Creek Group LP.
• 2017: Retired executive vice president of controversial wealth management Jeff Grubb. The Portland, Oregon native also serves as the guardian for M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust of Vancouver, Washington, since 2010.

Acquisition of Wachovia

On October 3, 2008, Wachovia agreed to be purchased by Wells Fargo for approximately $ 14.8 billion in all share transactions. The news comes four days after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) made the move to get Citigroup to buy Wachovia for $ 2.1 billion. Citigroup protested Wachovia's agreement to sell itself to Wells Fargo and threatened legal action on the matter. However, the deal with Wells Fargo has won the shareholder's approval because it rewards Wachovia about seven times what Citigroup has to offer. To further ensure shareholder approval, Wachovia issues preferred stock Wells Fargo which holds 39.9% of the voting power in the company.

On October 4, 2008, a New York state judge issued a temporary order that blocked the transaction from progressing while the situation was resolved. Citigroup suspects that they have an exclusivity deal with Wachovia that prohibits Wachovia from negotiating with other potential buyers. The order was canceled on the afternoon of October 5, 2008, by a New York state appeal court. Citigroup and Wells Fargo then entered into negotiations mediated by the FDIC to achieve a peaceful solution to the impasse. The negotiation failed. Sources said that Citigroup did not want to risk more than $ 42 billion which would become a cap under previous FDIC-backed deals (with the FDIC incurring all losses in excess of $ 42 billion). Citigroup did not block the merger, but indicated they would seek $ 60 billion in damages for breaching the alleged exclusivity agreement with Wachovia.

Investment by the US Treasury during the 2008 financial crisis

On October 28, 2008, Wells Fargo was the recipient of a $ 25 billion Emergency Economic Stabilization Act fund in the form of a preferred share purchase by the US Treasury. A Federal government test revealed that Wells Fargo needed an additional $ 13.7 billion to remain well capitalized if the economy deteriorated further under the stress test scenario. On May 11, 2009, Wells Fargo announced an additional share offering that was completed on May 13, 2009, raising its $ 8.6 billion capital. The remaining $ 4.9 billion of capital is planned to be increased through income. On December 23, 2009, Wells Fargo redeemed $ 25 billion in preferred stock issued to the US Treasury. As part of the preferred redemption of shares, Wells Fargo also paid an accrued dividend of $ 131.9 million, bringing the total dividends paid to $ 1.441 billion as preferred stocks were issued in October 2008.

History of Wells Fargo Securities

Wells Fargo Securities was established in 2009 to build the Wells Fargo stock market group it acquired during the Wachovia acquisition. Prior to that, Wells Fargo had little participation in banking investment activities, although Wachovia has an established investment banking practice that operates under the banner of Wachovia Securities.

The institutional capital markets of Wachovia and investment banking business emerged from the merger of Wachovia and First Union. First Union has purchased Bowles Hollowell Connor & amp; Co on April 30, 1998 add mergers and acquisitions, high yields, leveraged financing, equity pledge, personal placement, loan syndication, risk management, and public finance capabilities.

Heritage component of Wells Fargo Securities including Wachovia Securities, Bowles Hollowell Connor & amp; Co., Barrington Associates, Halsey, Stuart & amp; Co, Leopold Cahn & amp; Co., Bache & amp; Co.. Prudential Securities, A.G. Edwards, Inc. and investment arm of Citadel LLC banking.

Environmental recordings

In 2009, Wells Fargo was ranked # 1 among banks and insurance companies, and # 13 overall, in Newsweek Magazine's "Green Rank" of the 500 largest companies in the country. In 2013, the company is recognized by the EPA Center for Corporate Climate Leadership as the winner of the Climate Leadership Award, in the "Excellence in Goal Setting Certificate" category; This recognition is for corporate purposes to reduce its absolute greenhouse gas emissions from US operations by 35% by 2020 compared to 2008 levels.

In 2013, Wells Fargo has provided more than $ 6 billion in financing for environmentally-profitable business opportunities, including supporting 185 commercial-scale solar photovoltaic projects and 27 national utility-scale wind projects.

Wells Fargo has launched what is believed to be the first blog among industry peers to report on environmental stewardship and to gather stakeholder feedback and ideas.

"We want to be as open and clear as possible about our environmental efforts - both our achievements and our challenges - and share our experiences, ideas and thoughts as we work to integrate environmental responsibility into everything we do," says Mary Wenzel, director of Environmental Affairs. "We also want to hear and learn from our customers and by working together, we can do more to protect and conserve natural resources for future generations."

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Controversy

Higher fees apply to African-American and Hispanic borrowers

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a lawsuit against Wells Fargo on July 31, 2009, alleging that banks are directing African-Americans and Hispanics into high-cost subprime loans. A spokesman for Wells Fargo replied that "The policies, systems, and controls we have in place - including in Illinois - ensure race is not a factor..." According to Beth Jacobson, a loan officer at Wells Fargo was interviewed for a report on The New York Times, "We just left after them Wells Fargo mortgage has a developing country market unit that specifically targets black churches, as it assumes church leaders have a lot of influence and can convince the congregation to take subprime loans. "The report goes on to present data from the city of Baltimore, where" more than half of the property affected by Foreclosures on Wells Fargo from 2005 to 2008 now stands empty, and 71 percent of them are in a predominantly black neighborhood. Wells Fargo agreed to pay $ 125 million to subprime borrowers and $ 50 million in direct payment assistance in certain areas, for a total of $ 175 million.

Failure to monitor alleged money laundering

In a March 2010 agreement with federal prosecutor Wells Fargo acknowledged that between 2004 and 2007 Wachovia had failed to monitor and report allegations of money laundering by narcotics traders, including cash used to purchase four aircraft that delivered a total of 22 tons of cocaine to Mexico.

Overdraft charges

In August 2010, Wells Fargo was fined by US District Judge William Alsup for overdraft practices designed to "deceive" consumers and "devote" to their costs, and to mislead consumers about how banks process transactions and assess overdraft costs.

Completions and fines related to mortgage servicing practices

On February 9, 2012, it was announced that the top five mortgage services (Ally Financial, Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo) approved the settlement with the federal government and 49 states. The settlements, known as the National Defense Settlement Rights (NMS), require servicers to provide approximately $ 26 billion in assistance to depressed homeowners and in direct payments to states and federal governments. This settlement amount makes NMS the second largest civil settlement in US history, following only the Tobacco Prime Settlement Agreement. The five banks must also comply with 305 new mortgage service standards. Oklahoma persisted and agreed to settle with the bank separately.

On April 5, 2012, a federal judge ordered Wells Fargo to pay $ 3.1 million in punitive damages on a single loan, one of the biggest fines for banks that ever committed a mortgage service breach. Elizabeth Magner, a federal bankruptcy judge in the Louisiana Eastern District, cited the bank's behavior as "utterly disgraceful", stating that Wells Fargo has taken advantage of borrowers who rely on accurate bank calculations. He went on to add, "Perhaps more disturbing is Wells Fargo's refusal to voluntarily correct his mistakes, preferring to rely on borrower's ignorance or their inability to fund the challenge for his demands, rather than voluntarily giving up profits earned through inappropriate accounting methods.. "

SEC is fine due to insufficient risk disclosure

On August 14, 2012, Wells Fargo agreed to pay approximately $ 6.5 million to settle the SEC's allegations that in 2007 it sold mortgage-backed risky securities without being fully aware of the dangers.

Claim by FHA for underwriting loan

On October 9, 2012, the US federal government sued the bank under the False Claim Act in federal court in Manhattan, New York. The lawsuit alleges that Wells Fargo defrauded the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) over the past ten years, underwriting over 100,000 FHAs supported loans when more than half were ineligible for the program. The lawsuit is the third accusation against Wells Fargo in 2012.

In October 2012, Wells Fargo was sued by US federal lawyer Preet Bharara for a dubious mortgage transaction.

A lawsuit due to premium inflation on forced insurance

In April 2013, Wells Fargo settled a lawsuit with 24,000 Florida homeowners in addition to the QBE insurance company, where Wells Fargo was accused of inflating premiums on forced-out insurance.

Lawsuit over excessive overdraft charges

In May 2013, Wells Fargo paid $ 203 million to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing banks of overstating overdraft fees on check-account customers. Also in May, New York attorney Eric Schneiderman announced a lawsuit against Wells Fargo over allegations of violations of national mortgage settlements, a deal worth 25 billion dollars between 49 state prosecutors and the top five mortgage services in the US. Schneidermann claims that Wells Fargo has broken the rules for providing a fair and timely service.

Breach of 2015 to New York credit card laws

In February 2015, Wells Fargo agreed to pay $ 4 million for violations in which affiliates take interest in borrowers' houses in exchange for opening credit card accounts for homeowners. This is illegal under New York credit card laws. There is a $ 2 million fine with another $ 2 million going to restitution to customers.

Executive compensation

With CEO John Stumpf paid 473 times more than a median worker, Wells Fargo ranks 33th among the S & P 500 for employee-employee salary inequalities. In October 2014, Wells Fargo employees earned $ 15 per hour emailed CEO - copied another 200,000 employees - requested that all employees be given $ 10,000 a year increment taken from the company's annual earnings portion to overcome wage stagnation and income inequality. After being contacted by the media, Wells Fargo responded that all employees receive "competitive market" payouts and benefits significantly above the federal minimum.

Tax evasion and lobbying

In December 2011, the Public Campaign of a non-partisan organization criticized Wells Fargo for spending $ 11 million to lobby and not paying any taxes during 2008-2010, instead of earning $ 681 million in tax breaks, despite generating a profit of $ 49 billion, laying off 6,385 workers since 2008, and increased executive salaries by 180% to $ 49.8 million in 2010 for the top five executives. But by 2014, at an effective tax rate of 31.2% of its revenue, Wells Fargo is the fourth largest corporate taxpayer in the US.

Investing in the prison industry

GEO Group, Inc., a multi-national provider of private nonprofit prisons, accepts investments made by Wells Fargo's mutual fund on behalf of clients, not investments made by Wells Fargo and Company, according to a company statement. As of March 2012, its shares have grown to more than 4.4 million shares worth $ 86.7 million. In November 2012, the latest SEC filings revealed that Wells Fargo had released 33% of GEO shareholding, which reduced Wells Fargo's holdings to 4.98% from common shares of Geo Group. By reducing its holdings to less than 5%, Wells Fargo is no longer required to disclose some financial transactions with GEO.

While the organization's coalition, the National People's Action Campaign, has seen some success in pressuring Wells Fargo to divest from private prison companies like GEO Group, the company continues to make such investments.

SEC settlement for insider trading case

In 2015, an analyst at Wells Fargo resolved an insider trading case with the SEC. The former employee was accused of insider trading with former Wells Fargo trader. Sad & amp; Goldberg obtained a settlement which allowed the client to continue in the securities industry, while not recognizing or denying one charge based on the negligence of Ã, § (a) (3) claims, and paying a civil fine of $ 75,000

Wells Fargo account fraud scandal

In September 2016, Wells Fargo issued a total fine of $ 185 million to create more than 1.5 million check and savings accounts and 500,000 credit cards whose customers were never authorized. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a $ 100 million fine, the largest in its five-year history, along with a $ 50 million fine from the City and County of Los Angeles, and a $ 35 million fine from the Currency Supervisory Office. The scandal was caused by an incentive-compensation program for employees to create a new account. This led to the shooting of nearly 5,300 employees and $ 5 million set aside for customer refunds on charges for accounts that customers did not want. Carrie Tolstedt, who heads the department, retired in July 2016 and received $ 124.6 million in Wells Fargo shares, options, and shares that were restricted as a retirement package. On October 12, 2016, John Stumpf, Chairman and CEO, announced that he would retire amid controversy involving his company. It was announced by Wells Fargo that President and Chief Operating Officer Timothy J. Sloan will be successful, effective immediately. After the scandal, apps for credit cards and checking accounts in banks fell dramatically. In response to the event, the Better Business Bureau lowered bank accreditation, S & P Global Ratings lowered its view of Wells Fargo to negative from stable, and several states and cities across the US ended business ties with the company. An investigation by the board of directors of Wells Fargo, a report released in April 2017, particularly blamed Stumpf, which he said did not respond to evidence of error in the consumer services division, and Tolstedt, who is said to have consciously set an impossible sales goal and refused to respond when subordinates agree with them. The Council chose to use clawback clauses in Stumpf and Tolstedt's retirement contracts to get $ 75 million in cash and shares from former executives.

The blackmail suits for mortgage overcharges

In November 2016, Wells Fargo agreed to pay $ 50 million to settle a blackmail suit in which the bank was accused of overcharging charging hundreds of thousands of homeowners for an ordered assessment after they failed on their mortgage loan. While banks are allowed to charge homeowners for such appraisals, Wells Fargo often collects homeowners $ 95 to $ 125 on assessments for which the bank has been billed $ 50 or less. The plaintiffs have requested threefold compensation under the United States Affected Organization and Corruption Act on the grounds that sending invoices and statements with fraudulently concealed charges is enough mail and wire fraud to accuse extortion.

Dakota Access Pipeline Investment

Wells Fargo is the top investor in the Dakota Access Pipeline project in North Dakota, a 1,172 mile (1,886 km) underground pipeline project in the United States. Pipes have become controversial about their needs, and their potential environmental impacts.

In February 2017, Seattle, Washington's city council unanimously voted not to renew its contract with Wells Fargo "in a move citing the bank's role as a lender for the Dakota Access Pipeline project and" the creation of millions of fake accounts. "and said the bidding process for the next banking partner would involve" social responsibility. "The City Council in Davis, California, took similarly unanimous measures to find a new bank to handle his account by the end of 2017.

Failure to comply with document security requirements

In December 2016, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fineed Wells Fargo for $ 5.5 million for failing to keep electronic documents in "write once, read multiple" formats, which made it impossible to alter or destroy records after they were written.

2018 ad campaign

On May 6, 2018, Wells Fargo launched an integrated marketing campaign called "Re-established" to emphasize the company's commitment to rebuilding trust with its stakeholders and to demonstrate how Wells Fargo changed when it emerged from a challenging period in its history. Television advertisements opened with the origins of banks in Old West, scandalous and fast-forward references to describe dedicated bank employees and happy customers as narrators assure viewers: "This is a new day at Wells Fargo".

Connection to the weapons industry and NRA

Wells Fargo is a top banker for the US arms maker and National Rifle Association (NRA). From December 2012 to February 2018 it was reportedly helping two of the largest firearms and ammunition companies earn $ 431.1 million in loans and bonds. It also created a $ 28 million credit line for the NRA and operates the organization's main account.

Source of the article : Wikipedia