July 29, 2022

Federal investigators say US Bank workers opened fake accounts for sales goals

Source: CBS Minnesota

For more than a decade, US Bank pressured its employees to open fake accounts in their customers' names in order to meet unrealistic sales goals, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Thursday, in a case that is deeply similar to the sales practices scandal uncovered at Wells Fargo last decade.

The CFPB alleged that US Bank accessed consumers credit reports to open checking and savings accounts, credit cards and lines of credit without their permission. Employees were encouraged to do so, in order to meet the bank's goals of selling multiple products to each customer with the bank.

The scale of US Banks's fake accounts scandal was not disclosed immediately by the CFPB, but the bank was forced to pay $37.5 million in fines and penalties and will have to refund customers any fees they paid for the fake accounts.

...

A spokesman for US Bank said the bad sales practices were a legacy issue at the bank dating back to 2016, and that the bank has made significant improvements to its sales practices since then. The consent order reached with the CFPB acknowledges that US Bank did make improvements to its sales practices in recent years, which included no longer tying pay to opened accounts and requiring customers' consent to open new services.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/federal-investigators-say-us-bank-workers-opened-fake-accounts-for-sales-goals/

---

It was a huge story about 6 years ago when Wells Fargo was caught at this. I had not heard of any other bank doing this particular kind of thing, although there have been plenty of bank scandals, Bank Of America comes to mind. And of course all the corruption leading to the liars loans and 2008-9 housing bubble collapse.

Anyway, very disappointing hearing about workplace cultures like this. And they wonder why so many are not in the labor force. I mean, who wants to play corporate games 80 hours a week?

U.S. Bank / U.S. Bancorp is the 5th largest bank in the U.S.

Bow down, peasants!

https://www.bankrate.com/banking/biggest-banks-in-america/