In the Los Angeles Times article, COO Timothy Sloan was quoted stating he was unaware of any ".overbearing sales culture". In 2013, a Los Angeles Times investigation revealed intense pressure on bank managers and individual bankers to produce sales against extremely aggressive and even mathematically impossible quotas. Wells Fargo's sales culture and cross-selling strategy, and their impact on customers, were documented by the Wall Street Journal as early as 2011. Under Kovacevich, Norwest encouraged branch employees to sell at least eight products, in an initiative known as "Going for Gr-Eight". ![]() In a 1998 interview, Kovacevich likened mortgages, checking and savings accounts, and credit cards offered by the company to more typical consumer products, and revealed that he considered branch employees to be "salespeople", and consumers to be "customers" rather than "clients". Richard Kovacevich, the former CEO of Norwest Corporation and, later, Wells Fargo, allegedly invented the strategy while at Norwest. Success by retail banks was measured in part by the average number of products held by a customer, and Wells Fargo was long considered the most successful cross-seller. For instance, a customer with a checking account might be encouraged to take out a mortgage, or set up a credit card or online banking account. The results of this revelation include the resignation of CEO John Stumpf, an investigation of the company's bank-led model, a number of settlements between Wells Fargo and various parties, and pledges from new management to reform the bank.īackground Cross-selling Ĭross-selling, the practice underpinning the fraud, is the concept of attempting to sell multiple products to consumers. The bank's stable reputation was tarnished by the widespread fraud, the subsequent coverage, and the revelation of other fraudulent practices employed by the company. The bank took relatively few risks in the years leading up to the financial crisis of 2007–2008, which led to an image of stability on Wall Street and in the financial world. This blame was later shifted to a top-down pressure from higher-level management to open as many accounts as possible through cross-selling. Initial reports blamed individual Wells Fargo branch workers and managers for the problem, as well as sales incentives associated with selling multiple "solutions" or financial products. Wells Fargo clients began to notice the fraud after being charged unanticipated fees and receiving unexpected credit or debit cards or lines of credit. The creation of these fake accounts continues to have legal, financial, and reputational ramifications for Wells Fargo and former bank executives as recently as September 2023. The company faces additional civil and criminal suits reaching an estimated $2.7 billion by the end of 2018. News of the fraud became widely known in late 2016 after various regulatory bodies, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), fined the company a combined US$185 million as a result of the illegal activity. The Wells Fargo cross-selling scandal was caused by creation of millions of fraudulent savings and checking accounts on behalf of Wells Fargo clients without their consent or knowledge due to aggressive internal sales goals at Wells Fargo. ![]() ![]() Controversy generated by fraud perpetrated by Wells Fargo
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