5,300 Wells Fargo employees fired for creating over 2 million phony accounts
Source: CNN
On Thursday, federal regulators said Wells Fargo employees secretly created millions of unauthorized bank and credit card accounts -- without their customers knowing it -- since 2011.
The phony accounts earned the bank unwarranted fees and allowed Wells Fargo employees to boost their sales figures and make more money.
"Wells Fargo employees secretly opened unauthorized accounts to hit sales targets and receive bonuses," Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said in a statement.
Wells Fargo confirmed to CNNMoney that it had fired 5,300 employees related to the shady behavior.
Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/08/investing/wells-fargo-created-phony-accounts-bank-fees/index.html?adkey=bn
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,790 posts)Response to Bernardo de La Paz (Reply #1)
busterbrown This message was self-deleted by its author.
Don't know what to say about that.
mpcamb
(2,856 posts)Gosh, they must have been really tricky.
Joanie Baloney
(1,357 posts)They devised a scheme to skim a fraction of a penny off of transactions to slowly make a ton of money. The programmer goofed with the decimal and they ended up skimming of a significant and noticeable amount over a weekend.
Perhaps these folks were hoping a fire would break out at all the Wells Fargos to save the day, as in the movie.
Morons.
-JB
47of74
(18,470 posts)Maybe because it reminded me too much of the places I worked at.
klook
(12,134 posts)Different strokes, i guess... although i have struggled with job PTSD at times myself, laughing at depressing and enraging things is one of my coping mechanisms.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)Wells Fargo should be looking at its own policies. When you reward people, in fact pressure people, for generating numbers, they will generate numbers. I have been in the work place for 36 years and it always amazes me the incentive programs employers drum up that reward bad behavior. Not "who ever would have thought of that crafty scheme?" bad behavior, obvious, predictable bad behavior.
And I'm not excusing the employees, but when you tell or imply that people could be fired if they don't reach a certain number, they WILL reach that number. But you might not like how they did it.
I consider myself lucky that when I was threatened with firing if I didn't reach a certain number, a number that wasn't really under my control, although accounting for that number was, I had the option of going elsewhere without a major problem when my supervisor didn't seem to have a problem with how other people in my setting reached the desired number. Not everyone may find that as easy as I did.
INdemo
(6,994 posts)when I quit banking there a few years ago. Looks like my theory was correct.
There is no way in hell that 5300 employees committed fraud and no one in management knew about it?
Several Wells Fargo Execs should be going to jail along with the 5300 employees that committed this fraud
bucolic_frolic
(42,681 posts)the company created this environment by providing incentives
for the employees to behave in this manner
Mme. Defarge
(7,982 posts)What gets measured and rewarded gets done at the expense of the rest of the system. This is what happens when you treat employees like Pavlovian dogs by "incenting" them.
Ruby the Liberal
(26,217 posts)If you are told that you have to open 10 checking accounts and take 35 credit card applications a week just to keep your job...
And it isn't a Wells thing. Every bank in the industry does this.
rivegauche
(601 posts)Demonaut
(8,909 posts)Management created this environment
freebrew
(1,917 posts)shouldn't they be in jail?
'Shady' behavior, my ass!
It's fraud. And who authorized this type of crap?
I doubt these 'employees' thought of it on their own.
47of74
(18,470 posts)But of course our government thinks they're above the law and not to be touched.
rurallib
(62,346 posts)Sure makes me wonder how far up the ladder someone knew what was going on.
GeoWilliam750
(2,519 posts)Downtown Hound
(12,618 posts)And no, I'm not blaming the victims here. But Wells Fargo and the other big banks have been caught doing so much crooked shit, I don't know why anyone would ever trust them with their money.
Switch to a credit union. I axed my Wells Fargo account more than 12 years ago and couldn't be happier.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)aggiesal
(8,864 posts)the credit unions I've looked into are horrible Business Banks.
I use credit unions for personal banking.
I won't use them for Business Banking, until they get better.
lsewpershad
(2,620 posts)who gets the shaft. There bosses who are ultimately responsible get away scotch free
It's "scot free"
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/scot-free.html
lonestarnot
(77,097 posts)PassingFair
(22,434 posts)I have worked in those kind of corporate environments...
If you don't meet your quotas you either get fired or don't
make any money or both.
I always kept my sales clean, but I didn't look down on those that
just went with the flow, sometimes at their manager's insistence.
I was always afraid that they'd use rule infractions as an excuse to
broom me if they decided they wanted to get rid of me, even if those
rules were ignored and skirted by everyone else.
aggiesal
(8,864 posts)Daemonaquila
(1,712 posts)Why should we be surprised by the incredibly dishonest banking industry, or by the actions of this notoriously dishonest bank? But of course nobody will shut them down. Why should any corporation be truly punished for this incredible level of fraud?
aggiesal
(8,864 posts)who's to say that Citibank or Chase or any of the other major banks
are doing this as well?
Look at all of them!
keithbvadu2
(36,371 posts)MindPilot
(12,693 posts)There should be some upper level managers facing charges. If nothing else they breached their fiduciary duty to safeguard depositors' funds. The go-to solution for any corporate manager is fire the people involved, and walk away clean. That shouldn't be allowed to work this time.
Likely there will be former--and maybe even current--employees come forward to testify that this was not only tolerated but actively encouraged. I'm hoping for that impossible-to-deny video to surface of the meeting where managers are glad-handing each other over how thoroughly they fucked their customers.
ETA...Now I understand why--back when I banked with Wells--I could never get my checkbook to balance.
rurallib
(62,346 posts)yep, someone with some access and knowledge had the idea first. Let's hope it is thoroughly investigated.
George II
(67,782 posts)....went out to unwitting customers?
Plus, it's a form of embezzling, stealing those bonuses.
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)To allow an employee to make sales.
dembotoz
(16,740 posts)doubt it
management protects management
lambs will be sacrificed
there will be speeches and the beating of breasts......
new mission statements
more online training and this and that
bonus after bonus will be paid for those who had to deal with the dishonest riff raff
truthisfreedom
(23,113 posts)And just exactly who were the victims? Have they all been informed? Who knew and when? Have all of THOSE people been fired? Or were just the underlings dismissed?
INVESTIGATE. This, btw, is exactly why we need regulation. Profits run amok.
ProudToBeBlueInRhody
(16,399 posts)And management knew nothing and never encouraged it.
A dozen workers is believable. 5300? Heh.
Enrique
(27,461 posts)i didn't find them. Is grand theft no longer a crime?