Warren strips cross-selling bank CEO

Written By: - Date published: 2:02 pm, September 22nd, 2016 - 25 comments
Categories: business, us politics - Tags:

Watch Elizabeth Warren strip Wells Fargo Chairman and Chief Executive John Stumpf alive at a Senate hearing enquiring into Wells Fargo’s ‘cross-selling’ of bank products customers didn’t need. Wells Fargo, one of the US’ biggest banks,  was fined $185million and 5300 employees at branch and teller level were sacked. The senior executive in charge was allowed to retire with nearly $100million in stocks. Warren thinks the top management should be held accountable. See what you think.

The full story is outlined here. “Cross-selling” of unwanted bank products is similar to what Australian-owned New Zealand banks did to sell interest-rate swap insurance to New Zealand farmers, for which they settled out of court after 256 farmer customers were compensated in 2015 by Westpac, ASB and ANZ bank to the tune of $23.67million.  This represented a small number of farmers affected.

Labour Party primary industries spokesman Damien O’Connor hit out at the Commerce Commission following news of the Westpac settlement saying settling out of court removes the Commission’s obligation to protect the rights of farmers.

“From a farming perspective, the Commerce Commission is about as useless as tits on a bull,” O’Connor says.

“This deal means, along with agreements struck with ANZ and ASB, that banks have financed their way out of court action with nominal payments to a few hundred farmers, a small number of those affected. Many farmers were forced to sign confidentiality agreements when refinancing with the banks. The reluctance of the Commission to follow through with court action undermines the integrity of our legal system and reinforces the growing view that money buys justice,” O’Connor says.

25 comments on “Warren strips cross-selling bank CEO ”

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  1. Ad 1
    22 September 2016 at 3:55 pm

    I saw this yesterday on Salon.
    It’s such fun.

  2. Colonial Viper 2
    22 September 2016 at 4:01 pm

    Elizabeth Warren should have been the USA’s first woman POTUS.

    • Rocco Siffredi 2.1
      22 September 2016 at 4:34 pm

      Should that not be the USA’s first woman, native American,, POTUS?

    • AmaKiwi 2.2
      24 September 2016 at 11:21 am

      “Elizabeth Warren should have been the USA’s first woman POTUS.”

      But would the Deep State allow it? Accidental deaths have a way of happening to those who are a serious threat the powers that pull the puppets’ strings.

  3. Guerilla Surgeon 3
    22 September 2016 at 4:30 pm

    Ah – Elizabeth Warren. I want to have her babies.

  4. Bill 4
    22 September 2016 at 5:00 pm

    This post dove-tails quite nicely with the link provided by Pat on ‘Open Mike’.

    https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-22092016/#comment-1234840

    Yes. Jail them. But, as explained in the link by Ann Pettifor, they enjoy a kind of systemic immunity. To solve that, it might not be too far fetched to suggest we also jail any and all politicians who have helped construct the apparently impenetrable walls they (the financiers) hide behind.

    If you look at the face of John Stumpf, he really doesn’t give a fuck about anything Elizabeth Warren is saying. He’s immune, and he knows it.

    • TC 4.1
      22 September 2016 at 5:34 pm

      Immune and probably destined for a role in the fed or advising the govt on how to perpetuate the gravy train they all live on.

  5. red-blooded 5
    22 September 2016 at 5:14 pm

    That’s one impressive woman! But will their Securities and Exchange people actually follow up and prosecute? Somehow I doubt it.

  6. b waghorn 6
    22 September 2016 at 5:39 pm

    0 is the amount if hours of sleep that the $100 million man will lose over this.

  7. Chooky 7
    22 September 2016 at 6:03 pm

    pity she supports Clinton

  8. Peter Bradley 8
    22 September 2016 at 7:05 pm

    Elizabeth Warren just likes the sound of her own voice whining about wealthy people and how terrible they are. When given the opportunity to back a presidential candidate who might actually do something about it she declined. Instead she backed Hillary Clinton a status quo candidate who will not challenge CEO behavior or the legislation that enables them.

    • red-blooded 8.1
      23 September 2016 at 7:38 am

      I wonder, Peter, whether maybe, just maybe, Warren might be in a better position to judge who she should back than you,,?

      • Peter Bradley 8.1.1
        23 September 2016 at 9:13 am

        No she isn’t – she’s a career politician with an over sized upper middle class paycheck and lifestyle to protect. Liberal US politicians and the liberal US media love deriding the evils of specific business individuals with vehement, pompous righteousness – there’s Trump of course, there’s the Pharma industry CEO’s and now this latest Well’s Fargo CEO. Great words, brilliant tweets and passionate speeches but it changes nothing and it is intended to change nothing. Put Warren in front of a serious progressive candidate and a platform to curtail and constrain US capitalism and she – along with the liberal media – dissipate into the vacuous and meaningless ether from which they arose.

  9. RedLogix 9
    22 September 2016 at 8:10 pm

    Jesus wept.

  10. Richard@Down South 10
    22 September 2016 at 9:28 pm

    Wells Fargo employee’s who phoned the ethics line, or told management this was illegal or against ethics, were fired for ‘tardiness’

    http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/21/investing/wells-fargo-fired-workers-retaliation-fake-accounts/

  11. ankerawshark 11
    22 September 2016 at 10:50 pm

    This is one of the best things I’ve seen……

  12. grumpy 12
    23 September 2016 at 11:08 am

    Do you think Hilary should return the hundreds of thousands she got from Wells Fargo or Bill’s $200,000 for one speech? Amazing that Warren can have it both ways, rip Wells Fargo while at the same time support their proxy (her mate Clinton).

    • RedLogix 12.1
      23 September 2016 at 11:11 am

      Can you spot the difference in accountability here?

      CEO and Chairman

      Non-employee paid to give a talk

      • grumpy 12.1.1
        23 September 2016 at 11:15 am

        Makes no difference, whether it is Wells Fargo, Monsanto or Saudi Arabia, the Clinton’s pursuit of money has no conscience.

        • RedLogix 12.1.1.1
          23 September 2016 at 11:56 am

          In that case why do we pay CEO’s like Stumpf such huge sums to be accountable for their corporate performance, if their level of accountability is really no different to anyone else who got paid by the company?

          In fact this seems to be what’s happened, correct me if I’m wrong but it seems some 5000 odd WF employees have been sacked over this scam, but the CEO remains untouched. Doesn’t that seem just a little backwards to you?

          I’m no fan of the Clintons, but it seems odd to me that you’d start with them when demanding personal accountability here. There do seem to be a well paid cast of crims a lot closer to the crime to be looking at first.

          • grumpy 12.1.1.1.1
            23 September 2016 at 12:20 pm

            No doubt about what you say, and Warrens attack is spot on but my point is about the absolute corruption of the Left of US politics when she can, on one hand, correctly lambast Wells Fargo while championing their political stooge!

  13. NZJester 13
    23 September 2016 at 5:53 pm

    A lot of low-level employees apparently rang a hotline and told their HR about being pressured to commit the cross-selling frauds and for their efforts they got fired. Those who ended up committing the cross-selling frauds saw what happened to those who refused to do it so toed the line. They were doomed if they didn’t and doomed if they did. You can bet most of those most responsible for the fraud that pressured the lower levels to do it never lost their jobs. They would have made sure their name did not appear on any of the paperwork to keep themselves at arms length. Those in upper management should have been charged.

    • RedLogix 13.1
      23 September 2016 at 9:15 pm

      Here’s a longer version, and in the last 10 mins or so, Warren (the next day I think) explores among other things how the “Regional Manager” responsible for the division in which 5200 employees where sacked, is actually allowed to ‘retire’ and at the same time remains working for WF.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJhkX74D10M

      By allowing this person to ‘retire’ they get to keep all of their $90m odd in bonus’s and the so on. And Stumpf absolutely refuses to offer ANY opinion … despite being the Chairman of the Board … as to whether this person should have been sacked or not.

      The hubris is astounding.

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