Banks or Bandits? Is this just a US practice?

[Rx_]

Is this just a US tradition? The endless news about this kind of thing tends to make citizens feel it is normal and acceptable behavior.

How bad does a bank have to behave to get US Senators to claim moral fraud? Granted, he did apologize, maybe that is punishment enough?

Video 30 seconds : http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repo...or-betraying-customers-trust/article31962213/

The management fired 5,000 employees for following management's instructions.
But, Congress and the Bank Board are not really pushing clawing back the huge multi-million bonus compensations for past wrongful acts. The man in the video was reported to received a $19 Million USD bonus and knew of this activity.


U.S. senators denounce Wells Fargo CEO's 'gutless leadership' over bogus accounts
Bank employees may have opened as many as 2 million accounts in customers' names without their knowledge. Senator Elizabeth Warren said the illegal sales were a big driver of Wells Fargo's success as one of the nation's most profitable banks. She called on Mr. Stumpf to resign and for him to be criminally investigated.
"Have you returned one nickel of the money that you earned while this scandal was going on?" asked Ms. Warren. She helped create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which imposed its largest penalty ever on Wells Fargo for the sham accounts.
"Have you fired any senior management, the people who actually oversaw this fraud?" Ms. Warren continued.
"No," Mr. Stumpf replied.
Ms. Warren added: "Your definition of accountability is to push this on your low-level employees. This is gutless leadership."

On further investigation, the investigation determined that management knew about this 5 years ago and are just now agreeing to return the money (interest free of course).

Typically, the bank executives will keep the bonus. On average when caught, the large banks are reported to repay around 20% of the money they should not have taken in the first place. It would appear to be the "normal and acceptable cost of doing business" now days.

 

[kevlray]

A number of banks have had questionable practices over the years to generate more revenue (i..e, endless fees for everything). This is far the worst case I have heard. I just wonder who checks the banks to see that they are not robbing everyone.

 

[Rx_]

Wells Fargo (or Hells Fargo as it is known) has a clear record of denying Unemployment Claims for "cause" when they are fired. Besides, it would raise Wells Fargo's unemployment insurance rate if they allowed them to claim.
Under the Department of Labor Statistics, none of these 5,000 will show up as unemployed.
While Congress is faking the saber rattling, these 5,000 employees are being abused. They loose health insurance, pay, and useable job references.

 

[Steve R.]

It's not limited to banks. Virtually all corporations overpay their executives and pursue questionable business practices.

If capitalism is to survive in the US, the board of directors (for all companies) need to vigorously pursue their management oversight responsibilities. Should the board of directors fail to reign in management excesses, they will find the government taking over their businesses. Effective capitalism requires reasonable restraint and an ethical foundation.

 

[kevlray]

I was a Wells Fargo for about three weeks a good number of years ago. I had a real basic checking account. There was a line at the ATM, so I went in the building for a teller to help me. They told me that my account would be charged for using a teller. I found another bank.

 

[AccessBlaster]

Have you experienced B of A's new "Teller Assist"? They basically are doing away with tellers and directing everyone to the automated teller.

If you try and speak to a teller you are escorted to HAL 5000.

 

[Rx_]

Open the Cash Door HAL!
I can't do that Dave.
Capitalism in banking died. The Too Big To Fail bailouts removed the risk vs rewards which is the foundation of capitalism.
Score: Banksters $1,000,000,000,000 Citizens $100 (minus handling fees)

 

[kevlray]

I bank with a local bank. They have been pretty good so far. A number of the tellers know me by my first name. The only bad part is that there hours are not the best.

 

[Steve R.]

Wells Fargo CEO could walk with $200 million

$124 million payday for Wells Fargo exec who led fake accounts unit

The customers and lower level staff get screwed. The people in charge get to walk with more money than they could ever use in their lifetime.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Just as a followup for our friends across the pond, Wells Fargo is now running TV spots claiming they have adjusted their practices to stop this kind of abuse and they are going back through all affected accounts to assure that no customer loses money over this fiasco. They might or might not get back public confidence, but their TV spots claim they are fixing the problem, which is as close as I've ever seen to a public admission of guilt.

 

[Lightwave]

It's not limited to banks. Virtually all corporations overpay their executives and pursue questionable business practices.

If capitalism is to survive in the US, the board of directors (for all companies) need to vigorously pursue their management oversight responsibilities. Should the board of directors fail to reign in management excesses, they will find the government taking over their businesses. Effective capitalism requires reasonable restraint and an ethical foundation.

This is a good point but pretty much all forms of governance require restraint and ethical foundation which unfortunately doesn't seem to be a strong point for humanity

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Sad but true, lightwave.

 

[scott-atkinson]

The Banks in the UK are exactly the same, they have been fined countless times over different scandals, form the LIBOR fixing to miss-selling Loan Insurances, yet of course all the Executives still receive their killer Bonuses, no matter how badly, or indeed Wrongly the bank performs or behaves.

Unfortunately, banking is a necessary evil, if you are in work or on Welfare, your money gets paid into a bank account so you cannot escape it...

 

[statsman]

When I visited France a few years back, I was carrying American Express traveller's cheques.
As we were visiting only small towns, each time I saw the Amex logo on a bank window, I would cash some of them. There were a lot of places where they would only cash them for a fee.
The teller would accept the cheques, then give me an ATM card. You went to the ATM and the cash popped out. The machine kept the card.
This procedure sure must have cut down on the bank robberies as it appeared there was no actual cash on the premises.

 

[scott-atkinson]

They just stole the ATM instead... lol

 

[Rx_]

Now in India, the Central Banks won't honor anything much over a $7.00 USD bill. Then, they froze the accounts of the gold and jewelry dealers before the festival. They are making decisions on if and when to unfreeze these accounts.

The RBI sits on a board for the Bank of International Settlements (BIS)
https://www.bis.org/

India like the other Central Banks meet at the BIS around every fortnight. the RBI could not have defaulted on their currency without notifying the other banks at the BIS. Of course, despite those who don't believe in 'organized secrets', there are no records allowed to be taken, announced or kept for these meetings of these bank cartels and corporations.
RBI first announced people must trade in the larger bills for new ones within a short time period. Of course there were no new bills. They also had the Tax Revenue agents there to give anyone reportedly over around $1,200 USD some "very special treatment".

ATM will share the destiny of the Phone Booth

 

[SimplySarah]

It's not limited to banks. Virtually all corporations overpay their executives and pursue questionable business practices.

True, but when it comes to the banking system, which is a public service, the people who get screwed are the hard-working average citizens, while other corporations perhaps screw over investors with their schemes. The American banking system is incredibly corrupt and harmful to the overall population - and beyond actually. The last economics downturn was a good example of that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgqG3ITMv1Q

I watched this film The Big Short about a month ago. I knew in general what the banks had done, but was interested in knowing more. It kind of makes you want to bang your head against a wall. And then you are very skeptical as to how no one tried to prevent what too many people saw coming. And of course white collar crime gets a slap on the wrist instead of the prison time that it deserves. But hey, just another day in the good old USA.

 

[Steve R.]

True, but when it comes to the banking system, which is a public service, ...

The banking system is not a public service. Like any corporation banks sell products to customers to make profits for themselves. In the case of the banking system the main product it "sells" is liquidity (the ability to store and transfer assets (money)).