Swot Analysis Wells Fargo

Another scandal creates distrust within the banking industry. This time it is one of the giants in the banking industry, Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo was founded in 1852 by William George Fargo and Henry Wells and has grown to the giant it is today. In the fall of 2016 Wells Fargo was fined $100 million dollars by the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau for creating “some 1.5 million unauthorized retail accounts” since 2011. (Moritz, 2016). This is the largest fine since the inception of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. The total in penalty and fines accessed to Wells Fargo was $185 million dollars. Don’t feel sorry for Wells Fargo, their 2015 net income was 20.7 billion. The customers and some of the employees were the real victims. Wells Fargo

By reviewing their Vision and Values brochure, (https://www08.wellsfargomedia.com/assets/pdf/about/corporate/vision-and-values.pdf) it says “…putting our customers first and helping them succeed financially”, which isn’t in-line with the strategies they have employed. Their top strategy on their brochure says they have unwavering focus on the customer “Deepen relationships and attract new customers”, unfortunately their policies focused on attracting new customers. One of the policies mandated by the company was “cross-selling’ convincing customers to by multiple bank products” (EconMatters, 2016). This cross-selling lifted profits and kept customers more apt to feel they have to stay with the bank. This policy by itself is applauded by many in the industry. However, the quota placed on the employees was unrealistic and led to the unethical behavior. Wells Fargo asked employees to sell eight bank products per customer household. They were able to get to “6.32 products per customer household, twice the industry average” (EconMatters, 2016). The culture of profit over customer in addition to the pressures placed on employees led to employee’s creating