Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has earned the hatred of banks and bankers all over this country. She insists that we need regulations to make sure that banks don’t pad their own profits with your dollars.
In 2011, Sen. Warren managed to push the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFBP) through the Congress in spite of fierce Republican opposition. The CFPB is designed to provide average consumers protection from banks, mortgage companies, securities firms and other businesses in the financial sector.
Republicans screamed about government overreach. Conservatives called the CFPB a bunch of “excessive regulation” and said that it would serve to stifle competition in the financial markets.
Now I hope they just shut the hell up and admit that Sen. Warren’s plan to protect the average American from financial fraud was a stroke of genius.
https://twitter.com/owillis/status/773981994422300672
CNN Money reports that the CFPB has uncovered years of fraud committed by employees of Wells Fargo Bank. In fact, since 2011, thousands of Wells Fargo employees have created fake bank and credit card accounts.
To date, the Bank admitted, 5,300 employees have been fired nationwide because of their fraudulent activities. Hooray, CFPB!
You see, the way that Wells Fargo operates is to set sales targets for their employees. In other words, if you go to one of their banks for advice on a mortgage, a credit card, or a loan, they will try to push you into signing up for one of their products. If they hit their “targets,” they get a bonus.
They also get to charge people fees for servicing the accounts that the consumers never agreed to open in the first place.
Win-win for the bank and the bankers.
These crooked employees of the bank have opened at least 1.5 million of these fraudulent accounts, according to the analysts. They also opened almost 600,000 credit cards, and charged fees for using them.
Wells Fargo Bank got caught because that crazy progressive Senator from Massachusetts created an agency to protect citizens from this kind of profit driven crime.
They will be paying back each and every customer who got screwed over. They have also been slapped with the largest penalty imposed since the Bureau was created.
That’s $185 million that will go into the U.S. coffers instead of the fat cat bank.
Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
Thanks, Senator Warren!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PIqNTP8uNs
Featured image via YouTube screengrab.
