Waters Releases Staff Report on Pattern of Consumer Abuse from Wells Fargo

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, released a Democratic staff report detailing a pattern of abusive business practices by Wells Fargo and finding that prudential regulators have failed to utilize the full extent of their authorities to end unlawful practices at megabanks like Wells Fargo.

“Last September, our country first learned of the fraudulent account scandal at Wells Fargo,” said Ranking Member Waters. “Since then, it has become clear that that scandal was just the tip of the iceberg. This report not only documents a pattern of disregard for consumers at Wells Fargo, but also makes the case for why prudential regulators’ enforcement of our current laws is insufficient to address widespread anti-consumer behavior by megabanks.”

Democratic Staff Report Findings:

After an examination of Wells Fargo’s wide-ranging and growing list of consumer abuses, the staff report finds:

• Wells Fargo has demonstrated a pattern of egregiously abusing its customers.
  
  
• Prudential regulators, such as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, have failed to use their most severe tools to shut down repeat offender megabanks or otherwise hold their executives accountable.
  
  
• Effective deterrence of bad behavior demands the use of robust enforcement tools to end unlawful practices of megabanks and their senior executives, including by revoking megabanks’ charters in egregious cases.
  
  
• In the absence of action by prudential regulators, Congress should enact laws to better protect consumers.
  
  

Click here to view a one-pager.
Click here to view the full staff report.

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