Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

Remember all execs and board members must face a tribunal it all comes out in the wash.

Both Tim Sloan and Mary Mack should be suspended without pay and investigated by an outside counsel chosen by the Banking Senate Committee. A recommendation should be made within 3 months to replace the entire execitive team and all board of directors.

Tim Sloan will be transparent on our investigations. Really? Mr. Sloan and Ms. Mack ran Wealth Investment Management division. Are you going to spear head an investigation against yourself and your employee? If you were transparent you would just admit that YOU and YOUR EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT Team have no clue on how to run a major Bank. A perfect example is your management team focusing on the bottom line of $400MM loss due to the No Growth Cease and Decease Order. Why is this in the Banks best interest? The Banks net profit is reasonable at trillion dollars or more. It serves your best interest to make up those losses because it effects you and your executive management teams salaries and bonuses. When are you going to realize that it is the Banks best interest that you resign and take your executive management team with you?

Mary Mack is the Sr. Group EVP who ran the Wealth Management Division. She now runs both Community Banking AND Consumer Lending Divisions. If their is misconduct for the time she was there then she needs to be suspended pending an investigation.

So the Wealth and Investment Management Division was ran by Tim Sloan and Mary Mack who are currently the CEO and Group EVP for Community Banking and Consumer Loans. Why were they promoted to higher level positions with all their misconduct? Corrupt.

By Deon Roberts

deroberts@charlotteobserver.com

March 01, 2018 01:11 PM

Updated 9 hours 57 minutes ago

Federal authorities are looking into Wells Fargo’s wealth and investment management business, the bank disclosed Thursday, the latest sales practices problem to emerge at the beleaguered company.

The bank’s board is reviewing activities within the business unit in response to inquiries from federal government agencies, Wells said in its annual 10-K filing.

Specifically, the board is assessing whether there have been inappropriate referrals or customer recommendations, including involving rollovers for 401(k) plans and alternative investments. The review, in its preliminary stages, is also focusing on referrals of brokerage customers to Wells Fargo’s investment and fiduciary services business.

The problems echo similar ones the Observer reported on in October 2016 involving Wells’ national retail brokerage business, which is part of its wealth management arm. Customers and former employees of the brokerage arm, Wells Fargo Advisors, said questionable sales practices affected that operation, which sells everything from mutual funds to annuities to IRAs.

Consumer advocates on Thursday were critical of the latest revelations involving the third-largest U.S. bank by assets.

“Senior management must be replaced and the bank should be broken up,” said Bartlett Naylor, of Washington-based consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.

Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform, used Thursday’s disclosures to argue against Trump administration efforts to roll back financial regulations: “Mounting evidence of just how pervasively and systematically Wells Fargo has abused consumers is a powerful argument for more robust regulation and enforcement to hold big banks accountable.”

On the bank’s website, CEO Tim Sloan said Wells is working to fix its problems and is committed to remaining transparent about its efforts.

Also Thursday, Wells Fargo said it has found instances of incorrect fees being applied to assets and accounts in its investment and fiduciary services business, which is part of its wealth management operation. Those problems have resulted in overcharges, the bank said, adding that a review is in preliminary stages.

The fresh disclosures come as Wells continues to recover from the scandal over unauthorized accounts that erupted in September 2016. Employees opened accounts and enrolled customers in online banking without their knowledge in a push to meet aggressive sales goals.

In 2016, Wells Fargo placed the head of the brokerage business, Mary Mack, over the community banking unit to help that operation recover from the scandal.

Mack, who was based in St. Louis, relocated to Charlotte and reports directly to Sloan, who replaced John Stumpf after he abruptly retired over the scandal.

Last year, Wells put New York-based Jonathan Weiss, head of Wells Fargo Securities, in charge of the wealth and investment management business. Weiss replaced David Carroll, who was based in Charlotte and retired after a roughly 38-year career with Wells and Charlotte predecessor companies Wachovia and First Union.

In a Thursday note to employees reviewed by the Observer, Weiss noted the 10-K revelations will be discouraging to workers and their clients.

“At this point, we don’t have many facts which is why we are limited in what we are able to share,” he said. “In times of challenge, people demonstrate their true leadership. Now is one of those times for Wealth and Investment Management. We will get to the bottom of these issues and resolve them.”

In Thursday’s filing, Wells also said it plans to increase amounts to reimburse customers harmed by auto insurance purchased through a third-party vendor on their behalf. Last year, Wells admitted hundreds of thousands of customers may have been charged premiums for insurance they did not need.

The company now expects to pay $145 million in cash remediation and $37 million in account adjustments.

Wells Fargo also disclosed Thursday that it is reviewing practices in its foreign exchange business and responding to inquiries from government agencies about the unit. Reports in October said that Wells had fired four bankers in its foreign-exchange business amid an investigation by the bank and regulators.

[READ MORE: Wells Fargo shares battered after Federal Reserve action]

Wells is based in San Francisco, but it has its largest employee hub in Charlotte.

Deon Roberts: 704-358-5248, @DeonERoberts