Wells Fargo Reputation Summary

Wells Fargo has been the talk of the nation for the pass week. The article, “Next test for Wells Fargo: Its Reputation” by Emily Glazer discuss Wells Fargo’s reputation under scrutiny and what we can anticipate. I will discuss the article, share commenter’s opinion and experience as well as my outlook on the future of Wells Fargo.

The following are the facts of Wells Fargo’s (WF) scandal. WF employees were opening false accounts, creating personal identification numbers and moving funds without consumers’ knowledge. As a result, WF was fined $185 million dollars. This however, is a relatively small penalty since the bank made approximately $23 billion in profit in 2015. WF made a profit of $12.2 billion in the second quarter this year and

In the comment section of this article, Barbara Cooper says “The peons are afraid of crossing their legs without management’s approval.” Cooper believes that lower level employees would have never came up with such tactics nor would they act acted without the knowledge or approval of administrators and executives. So how could 5,300 employee slip under the radar? She accuses upper management and she is probably right. No CEO would want to see lower or flat sales figures. As a result, there will be a great deal of pressure for upper and lower management to reach difficult sale goals and therefore resorting to illegal tactics. Another commenter, Powler Martin, agrees with Cooper. Martin says, “I have no doubt the executives awarded themselves higher bonuses on the basis of the “growth” in accounts that was occurring under the staff compensation policies they put in place.”

A third commenter, Harlan Crowder had been a customer for three decades. The WF sells strategy was so strict that he could not deposit a tax refund check payable to himself and his wife because he needed to open a joint account in order to deposit that check. Crowder says, “I did not leave Wells Fargo; they left me. You should not need to keep your hand on your wallet when you go to the bank.” In my opinion, no matter who or what is responsible, one thing is for certain, and that is that all management level will

The scandal will hurt WF’s reputation and their ability to attract or retain customers. But like all scandals with big corporation, it will be a distance memory in another month or so. The tragic truth is, Wells Fargo will always be too big to fail, even if it affects the nation at a macro-level. New rules and regulations will be put in place as a result, but consumers will never even feel the effects. Wells Fargo will walk away the same way BP did. BP spilled millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico; animals die, fisherman loses their job and I still pumped BP gasoline into my truck because if I do not, I will lose my