California may soon allow state residents to sue financial institutions after clauses inserted into Wells Fargo account - opening agreements blocked customers from suing over the bank's creation
of unauthorized accounts in their names.
Brown, an outspoken opponent of mandatory arbitration clauses, pressed Wells Fargo Chief Executive John Stumpf on the matter during the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee's Sept. 20 hearing on the bank's recent $ 185 - million settlement related to the
opening of the unauthorized accounts.
McCaskill was in
charge of that unauthorized account, which averaged about $ 200,000 annually in transactions since late 2005, but was managed with a manual ledger that never matched bank statements, according to the report from Springfield's Office of Internal Audit....
The Democratic senator questioned his accountability and the stock gains he profited from during the time
millions of unauthorized accounts were opened at the bank, ultimately recommending he resign, return the money he earned during that time and be criminally investigated by the SEC and the Department of Justice.
Williams took over the San Francisco Fed in 2011, just as Wells Fargo, by its own admission, was ramping up pressure on employees to aggressively cross-sell banking products to customers, and millions
of unauthorized accounts were opened to meet exacting sales targets.