Banking, finance, and taxes

Fraud Costs Wells Fargo Shareholders $10 Billion

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Wells Fargo & Co.’s (NYSE: WFC) shares have fallen so much from when the fraud was disclosed, which cost 5,200 employees their jobs and the bank suffered $185 million in fines, that $10 billion has been cut off the bank’s market cap. Shares trade at $48.61, down 3.61% for the day.

Several analysts have pointed out that JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) has just passed Wells Fargo as the largest bank in the U.S. as measured by market cap.

A statement by CEO John Stumpf to inflame investors:

Our objective has always been and continues to be to meet our customers’ financial needs and drive customer satisfaction. We are eliminating product sales goals because we want to make certain our customers have full confidence that our retail bankers are always focused on the best interests of customers.

We believe this decision is both good for our customers and good for our business. The key to our success is the lifelong relationships that result from providing each customer with great value. For the past several years, we have significantly strengthened our training programs, controls and oversight and have evolved our model to ensure we are rewarding deeper relationships and providing excellent customer service. The elimination of product sales goals represents another step to reinforce our service culture, helps ensure that nothing gets in the way of our ability to achieve our mission, and is consistent with our commitment to providing a great place to work.

Stumpf has not taken any responsibility for the fiasco, even though it happened on his watch.

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