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One of the nation's key banking regulators told senators today that his agency is looking at all of the country's large and mid-sized banks to see if they're guilty of the same types of fraudulent practices uncovered at Wells Fargo. Examiners from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will review sales practices at the nation's banks to see if they might encourage illegal or dangerous behavior, including creating fake accounts in the name of meeting sales goals, Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry said at today's Senate Banking Comittee hearing.
The CEO of Wells Fargo faced accusations of fraud and calls for his resignation Tuesday from harshly critical senators at a hearing over allegations that bank employees opened millions of accounts customers didn't know about to meet aggressive sales quotas. Members of the Senate Banking Committee showed bipartisan outrage over the long-running conduct, unsatisfied by Chief Executive John Stumpf's show of contrition.
Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf is set to appear before the Senate Banking Committee at 10 a.m. ET on Tuesday to answer question about fraudulent accounts opened by Wells employees. 2 million checking and credit card accounts were opened from 2011 onward by Wells Fargo employees without the knowledge of customers.
Wells Fargo chairman & CEO John Stumpf is interviewed by Maria Bartiromo during her "Mornings with Maria Bartiromo" program on the Fox Business Network, Dec. 7, 2015, in New York. Wells Fargo is in the spotlight after its employees allegedly created up to 2 million bank and credit card accounts, transferred customers' money without telling them and even created fake email addresses to sign people up for online banking in an effort to meet lofty sales goals.
Lobbyists who've been bashing away at Washington's latest effort to regulate Wall Street bonuses may find the Wells Fargo & Co. scandal just grabbed the hammer from their hands.
Top executives at Wells Fargo have thus far managed to dodge any responsibility for their role in a yearslong scandal that last week earned it $185 million in fines, including a $100 million levy from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau - the largest the watchdog agency has ever assessed. The bureau said that beginning in 2011, Wells Fargo employees routinely used legitimate customers' names to create phony credit, debit, and checking accounts - as many as 2 million in an effort to meet sales goals.
Wells Fargo & Co. was sued by customers in what may be the first of many lawsuits to come after disclosures that employees created unauthorized accounts to boost the bank's fees.
Tim Sloan, the bank's president and chief operating officer, has spent most of the week reaching out and meeting with members of Congress and their staffs in Washington, as the lender confronts blowback over allegations it opened more than 2 million accounts without customers' approval, said people with direct knowledge of the discussions. With the Senate Banking Committee preparing to hold a Sept.
Wells Fargo will stop setting the sales goals that bank employees say led to pressure to open millions of fake customer accounts. "We are eliminating product sales goals because we want to make certain our customers have full confidence that our retail bankers are always focused on the best interests of customers," CEO John Stumpf said in a statement.