Business As Usual: Wells Fargo Cheats Millions of Customers

FEATURING DOUG HENWOOD – One of the nation’s largest banks, Wells Fargo, has been fined a whopping $185 million in fines by the federal government, including the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. It’s crime? Illegal banking practices that involved opening credit card and bank accounts for millions of people who didn’t authorize them. In addition to it’s fine, Wells Fargo is refunding $2.6 million in fees to customers.

The bank, which has 40 million customers, has fired more than 5,000 of its employees over the scandal. But Wells Fargo staff was heavily incentivized and pressured into pushing the illegal practices. There are no reports of any senior staff being fired as yet.

Many customers who found they had accounts they did not authorize, were slapped with fees that multiplied when they didn’t pay them. One man who is suing the bank saying his credit score suffered as a result.

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Doug Henwood, political economist, contributing editor to The Nation, editor of Left Business Observer, author of After the New Economy, and Mu Turn: Hillary Clinton Targets The Presidency.