“It’s Not Just Wells Fargo”
New Digital Ad Slams Trump’s Leniency on Bad Bank Behavior as CEOs Get the Maxine Waters Treatment
WATCH ‘NOT JUST WELLS FARGO’ HERE
www.BigBankFacts.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A decade after the financial crisis that cratered the U.S. economy, CEOs of several major banks that contributed to it face the House Financial Services Committee today and likely questions about why they’re still taking huge risks with other peoples’ money. In advance of the hearing, consumer advocacy group Allied Progress launched a new digital ad, “Not Just Wells Fargo”, warning that the largest banking institutions are back to their old tricks and the Trump administration is doing very little to stop it. Or as the Washington Post recently put it: “As regulators scaled back scrutiny, bankers began to binge.” The video is backed with ads on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google including ads geo-targeted at the headquarters of the banks represented at today’s hearing and the agencies that are supposed to be regulating them. Allied Progress also launched www.BigBankFacts.org detailing how the big banks have made out like bandits on the taxpayer dime despite ongoing and systemic problems that have harmed millions of consumers since the Great Recession.
“A common thread binds these banking giants,” said Jeremy Funk, spokesman for Allied Progress. “Each took billions of dollars in taxpayer bailout money. Each has benefited massively from the Trump tax cut, fueling record industry profits going mostly towards stock buybacks instead of job creation. Each pays its CEOs obscene salaries. And each is taking advantage of the lapse in enforcement and lifted restrictions under the Trump administration against casino-like behavior. Behavior like shelling out over $1 trillion in risky corporate loans that many companies can’t pay back in the event of an economic downturn or spike in interest rates. Banks are partying like it’s 2008 all over again and President Trump is the host. Pretending like the financial crisis never happened is a recipe for disaster. With regulators asleep at the switch, Congress must step up and fill the dangerous void of banking accountability.”
Wells Fargo’s phantom-accounts scandal (and continuing problems) was outrageous, but not an outlier:
- Since 2018, Citigroup allegedly miscalculated interest rates for 1.75 million accounts, violated the Fair Housing Act, and manipulated “the most important interest rate in the world.“
- In 2018, Bank Of America was accused of “Misleading”Customers, “Fraudulent Practices,”And “Attempted Manipulation” Of A Financial Benchmark.
- In 2017, JP Morgan faced accusations of failing to “safeguard customer securities from several countries,” “creat[ing] hundreds of millions of dollars of deficits by violating U.S. rules designed to thwart the improper commingling of assets.”
- Morgan Stanley has allegedly failed to comply with anti-money laundering laws, overbilled clients, and ran a sales contest to persuade clients to borrow against their brokerage accounts.
- Goldman Sachs is currently being investigated for its role in a “multibillion-dollar fraud involving a Malaysian government investment fund” that funneled at least $2.7 billion to the wealthy and well-connected.
- In September 2017, State Street Allegedly Fraudulently Charged Secret Markups To Customers For Management Services.
Read more at: www.BigBankFacts.org
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