When I stumbled onto Wells Fargo watchdog sites I have to admit that I was a bit surprised. After all, the general thinking is that Wells Fargo is synonymous with financial strength – but is that all that should be looked at?
For example, in their October 27th, 2008 update, the Inner City Press stated:
” Inner City Press / Community on the Move (ICP) and its Fair Finance Watch have become increasingly concerned with Wells Fargo’s predatory lending, including overseas.”
Normally, I wouldn’t pay much attention to a statement like that but for the fact that IPCs book about Wells-relevant topics of predatory lending and corporate fraud received rave reviews from CBS MarketWatch and the London Times, which by all acounts are substantial news outlets.
Naturally I was interested to see what they had to say about the recent Wells Fargo – Wachovia deal, but found only this:
“Update of October 27, 2008: From Dow Jones on the Fed’s self-approval of Wells Fargo – Wachovia: “ The Fed said a commenter had requested a public meeting, but the Bank Holding Company Act does not require the board to grant that request. A Federal Reserve spokeswoman wouldn’t disclose the name of the group that had requested the hearing.” So now, like North Korea, the Fed tries to cover up even who has commented. For the record, ICP Fair Finance Watch made the request…” (click here to go to Inner City Press’ Wells Fargo Watch page)
Honestly, I don’t know enough about Inner City Press to know how fair and balanced their reporting is, but it does offer an alternative starting point for research the facts about large financial institutions like Wachovia.
But doing a bit more research I turned up some interesting documents which shows that just because I know about how to generate income from home doesn’t mean I know all of the important things I need to know about how financial institutions work – which is why I am constantly working on developing a team of experts as no ONE person can do it all.
Some of the other interesting Wells Fargo finds are as follows:
- On March 6th, 2008 Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan today issued subpoenas to Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., and Wells Fargo Financial Illinois, Inc., to determine whether the lenders unfairly steered African American and Latino borrowers into higher cost or otherwise inappropriate home loans in violation of fair lending and civil rights laws (more about this WellsFargo investigation…)
- In early 2008 the City of Baltimore took the bold and pioneering move of filing a lawsuit against Wells Fargo alleging that Wells Fargo is liable to the City for millions of dollars in damages under the Federal Fair Housing Act, which makes it illegal to target minority communities for unfair and discriminatory practices.
- There is a very interesting post from an alleged ex-employee of Wells Fargo here, although the part about 2007 subprime lending doesn’t appear to be accurate according to the comments on this list at ML-Implode (although I’m not sure what the reclassification piece means).
It’s important to understand the difference between predatory lending, steering, and more blatant scams such as Advance Fee fraud which is seem to be what a user who posted about the Winford Financial Group in Yahoo answers is talking about:
“Winford Financial Group is a Scam. They approved me for a $5K loan on May 16, 2008, and said that in order for me to receive the funds I had to wire (via Western Union) the first 4 mos ($900) worth of payments for security and the funds will be posted to my account the next business day.
Well, on the next business day a gentleman by the name of Kevin called to inform that the information on my application was incorrect. After I refuted the fact of the incorrect information, he began to inform that because of my debt ratio they required another $900 deposit in order for me to receive the loan. How could a business in the U.S. of A. prey on its citizens in a time like this?” (more about Winford Financial Group complaint in Yahoo Answers…).”
Anyhow, it’s important to understand the major difference in the nature of a scam such as advance fee fraud and many of the allegations against Wells Fargo that I’ve located having to do with possible predatory lending practices. If the latter allegations are accurate it could be an indication of much larger problems, especially since Kevin A. Rhein, the division President and Business Manager of Wells Fargo Card Services was recently appointed to the Consumer Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve (details are here…).
And remember you can’t just go by Better Business Bureau reports – in Saint Louis we have a BBB on Watson Road in St. Louis – but it should still be a part of your research against potential fraud ands scams.
You can locate your local Better Business Bureau here:
Consumer advocacy, watchdog and complaint sites and pages dedicated to Wells Fargo:
- Wells Fargo Watch at InnerCityPress.org
- News story from the Minneapolis Star Tribune reprinted on BusinessWeek about a lawsuit accusing Wells Fargo of misleading certain investors.
- Wells Fargo complaint site
One thing that should come out of the lawsuite mentioned is more information about the allegations that the Ex-Employee makes in the comments here as the Star Tribune article mentions that:
“The suit blasts public statements of Wells Fargo executives who have said the bank avoided most of the pain of the collapse of the subprime mortgage market and derivatives-market collapse by avoiding most of the risky practices.
‘Behind Wells Fargo’s closed doors, however, another reality exists,’ according to the complaint.”
Note: hopefully you understand why this would be relevant to working at home, since cash flow is critical to the success of any business.
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[…] Rhein Division President Wells Fargo Card Services Minneapolis, […]