July 28, 2017

Following New Reports of Wells Fargo Misconduct, Warren Renews Call for Fed Chair Yellen to Remove Bank's Board

Text of the letter available here (PDF)

Washington, DC - Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) today renewed her call for the Federal Reserve to use its authority to remove the Wells Fargo board members who served during the bank's fake accounts scandal from 2011-2015. The senator wrote to Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen following Thursday's New York Times report that more than 800,000 Wells Fargo customers were charged for auto insurance they did not need between January 2012 to July 2016.

"There are surely deep risk management problems at a bank when it opens millions of fake customer accounts and charges nearly a million customers for a financial product they don't need - all over roughly the same five-year period," Senator Warren wrote. "The Wells Fargo Board is ultimately responsible for that failure, and the Federal Reserve should remove Board members who served during that time period."

This week's report about unnecessary and damaging auto insurance charges "makes the case for removing these Board members even stronger," the senator noted.

In an earlier letter in June, Senator Warren outlined the Fed's legal authority to remove board members who fail to engage in adequate risk management practices, and the senator first requested that Chair Yellen remove the Wells Fargo board members. Chair Yellen responded that she would "stand ready to use such authority should the facts and circumstances warrant it." Senator Warren then questioned Chair Yellen about whether she would take such action during a July Banking Committee hearing.

Read a PDF copy of Senator Warren's letter here.

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