Bankruptcy Blogs

Morning Scan: Wells' Troubles Mount; Bill Would Boost Fintech

09/23/16

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Another day, another woe: The pressure on Wells Fargo continues to increase. Eight Democrat senators Thursday asked the Labor Department to open an investigation into the bank's workplace practices. Specifically, the senators, led by Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., asked the department's Wage and Hour Division to examine whether Wells "aggressively skirted" overtime laws and failed to properly compensate its lower-level employees. Labor said it was taking "very seriously" complaints about how the bank...

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Women in Banking: Wellsgate, B of A Settlement and a Fintech Escape

09/22/16

We haven't heard from Carrie Tolstedt yet, but she has been in the spotlight all week, as seemingly everyone wants an explanation from Wells Fargo. JPMorgan Chase puts even more focus on digital channels, and Politico has a piece on the opportunities fintech offers women, especially female bankers, with a caveat. Also, the B of A bros' club suit has been settled.

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Fed Deserves Some Blame for Aggressive Cross-Selling Tactics

09/22/16

The Wells Fargo scandal is more reason for officials to tighten policy on anti-tying measures to put a stop to overly aggressive sales methods.

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Police Misconduct in Bankrupt Cities: Ninth Circuit Update

09/22/16

"But Chapter 9 has awakened, and we do not presume further disputes over its interpretive and practical complexities will remain long at rest."

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Let's Not Repeat Failings of Pre-Durbin Age

09/22/16

In 2010, lawmakers passed reforms to bring transparency and competition to a swipe fee market that had been devoid of both. Now, they want to undo that progress.

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Morning Scan: House Wants Shot at Stumpf; Phones to Replace Banks?

09/22/16

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Round Two: Congress isn't through with Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf just yet. Following his pummeling before the Senate Banking Committee Tuesday, Stumpf has been asked to testify before the House Financial Services Committee next week on the bank's phony accounts scandal.

The New York Times' Gretchen Morgenson says Wells' recent behavior was no surprise to attorneys who battled the bank in mortgage foreclosure cases after the housing meltdown. "During the financial crisis,...

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Is It Time for the CFPB to Regulate Retail Bank Employee Compensation?

09/21/16

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that incentive-based compensation like the type featured in Wells Fargo's current and previous consent orders has the potential to encourage fraud and steering of consumers into inappropriate products in order to make sales numbers.  Here's the thing:  there's little regulation of retail banking employee compensation.

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Not Wells Fargo's First Rodeo...

09/21/16

Over on Twitter, Michael Barr noticed that there's an eerie similarity between Wells Fargo employees team members being incentivized to open up unauthorized deposit and credit card accounts for consumers and another practice that got Wells in trouble in 2011, falsifying borrower income and employment information in order to sell debt consolidation, cash-out refinance mortgage loans at sub-prime rates (often to prime borrower

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What is the point of that?

09/21/16

Perhaps as a result of GM, I've been thinking about notice issues in connection with insolvency.

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