WASHINGTON/NEW YORK: President Donald Trump took aim at the third-largest US bank on Friday, writing on Twitter that government fines and penalties against Wells Fargo & Co could be hiked amid an ongoing sales scandal.
“Fines and penalties against Wells Fargo Bank for their bad acts against their customers and others will not be dropped, as has incorrectly been reported, but will be pursued and, if anything, substantially increased. I will cut Regs but make penalties severe when caught cheating!” Trump wrote.
It was reported on Thursday that the new acting head of the US consumer finance watchdog agency was reviewing whether Wells Fargo should pay tens of millions of dollars over alleged mortgage lending abuse, according to three sources familiar with the dispute.
It was not clear whether Trump was reacting to the Reuters’ report.
San Francisco-based Wells Fargo has been rocked by a sales scandal in which thousands of its employees enrolled perhaps millions of customers in products they did not want or need.
Last year, the bank paid a record $100 million fine to the CFPB over an earlier phony accounts scandal.
The White House referred questions about Trump’s tweet to a spokesman for Mick Mulvaney, the new interim head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
John Czwartacki, senior advisor at the CFPB, said the regulator would not comment on any pending enforcement matters, but added that “as a matter of principle, Acting Director Mulvaney shares the President’s firm commitment to punishing bad actors and protecting American consumers.”
The Republican president has pledged to roll back rules put in place under his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama that put Wall Street on a tighter leash after the 2007-09 financial crisis. The industry is hoping regulatory agencies will adopt a less aggressive approach to fines under the Trump administration.— Reuters
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
