For a Bank, simply being fined with an order to pay money is ridiculous as a substitute for the required discipline.
With a long history of severe discipline from multiple genciesx, Wells Fargo bank is a repeate offender as the current CFPB director has said. It has lost its right to do business in the American Marketplace. If not, the government is literally inviting more violations of greater and greater significance — like the mortgage meltdown in 2008.
In the Wall Street Journal and other publications, we see that Wells Fargo Bank is going to pay a large fine for faking, lying and even creating the illusion of customers in order to push up the trading price of their common stock.
Wells Fargo bank is not some toddler that should be told not to do that again because it is bad. It knows it is bad, and it did it anyway. Paying a fine is merely the cost of doing business. The Bank should be eliminated from the marketplace — just like any single person would be if they committed such clear violations of statutes, common law, and common sense.
Banks are entities that are licensed to do business as depository and lending institutions. If a lawyer did what they did, the license would be gone, and the lawyer would be in prison. If the lawyer only faced the prospect of paying a fine, it might still be worth committing the violation.
Wells Fargo faked the creation and maintenance of accounts, fees, collections and its own status in thousands of foreclosures. In foreclosures, it kept saying it was a lender until it said that it wasn’t a lender. That is when they admit that they are acting as a servicer. But the fact that they’re collecting money doesn’t make them a servicer unless they are doing it for a creditor.
These CFPB settlements are basically publicity stunts for the agency without doing anything for consumers. So the name Consumer Financial Protection Board is turning out to be a sham. That is not the way Elizabeth Warren and other Democrats conceived of it. But Republicans, paid by Wall Street, have kneecapped this agency at every turn. It cannot now fulfill the purpose envisioned when it was created.
That is politics, and without competing interests, there is no energy in a free-flowing democratic republic. I get that. But unless we take private money out of the equation of electoral politics, consumers will continue to be treated and evolve into what Karl Marx referred to as the “proletariat.”
Free markets mean, by definition, that the participants in the market are free to make their own decisions. And free markets require government regulation to force players to follow the rules set by society for fair play. Today, no consumer gets the information needed t make those decisions and cannot defend against false claims.
The concept of equality under the law is being ignored. A lawyer or any other licensed professional loses their license and risks imprisonment for performing the same deceitful acts that Wells Fargo (and other banks) have been doing for many years. For a Bank, simply being fined with an order to pay money is ridiculous as a substitute for the required discipline.
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The problem with all these “settlements” is that while there is an assertion that repos and foreclosures were done unjustly and illegally, nobody ever gets their car or house back. Once upon a time this was a no-brainer. If a chain of tile was based on a fraudulent void document, all the succeeding transaction documents were also removed from the chain of title. Now the banks have agencies as their intermediary. They settle with the agency and some former car owner or homeowner gets a check for $179 in exchange for gifting property worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to the offender.
Filed under: foreclosure |
I expect that CFPB will close down Wells Fargo. My most recent experience is they sent someone a check made out to me for $10,270. and that person signed and cashed it .
I cannot get any help in Maine. I have years of violations and plan to file with court of claims. All we can do it leave this country – things will not improve.
Thanks to all who have contributed to this site – and hopes you will have a happy and prosperous New Year!!
The CFPB creation took away the ability to go directly to your state AG/DOJ. The CFPB was created in 2010 by Dodd Frank. Any complaint filed with the state is forwarded to the CFPB – who can NEVER represent an individual – or even individually investigate. In effect, the creation of the CFPB eliminated any outlet for financial victims to get an investigation. CFPB will not enforce any complaint, and will simply accept the “bank’s” reply – including that the bank will say a DUPLICATION of already filed complaint despite different violations. We were left with no where to go after the creation of the CFPB. Warren weakened at CFPB’s final creation. Give her credit for wanting to look into violations today. A dollar and day short. We are NOT being told the entire truth. It is time for both sides of aisle to realize that the settlements in wake of financial crisis were nothing but a stall of economic disaster. Undo them.
Happy New Year to you Papergate – and Neil – and all!
Many lawyers lost their licenses for just doing their jobs – not even deceitful or lawbreaking – but they dared challenged financial elites.
Agreed CFPB is a toothless hologram. So are the so-called state created ‘consumer protection bureaus’ mimicking the CFPB. In PA the attorney general bragged about creating the first ‘consumer protection’ bureau but then didn’t prosecute anyone and is now the governor-elect. Too many foxes are in the People’s hen houses . . . So how do we purge them and put people in charge? Warren should have been put in charge of CFPB immediately, maybe, assuming she’s still on our sides! Thanks for article Neil and have a Happy and Prosperous New Year!!