Banks always have had a notorious fame attached
to them for leeching out every single penny from their customer, either by
deception or by assertion. Wells Fargo, the fourth largest bank in U.S.
manifests a similar kind of behavior now having admitted that they falsified
bank records between 2002-2016, harmed the credit ratings of customers,
unlawfully used their personal information and wrongfully collected millions of
dollars in fees and interest. Proven guilty, the bank has been fined $3 Billion
for its misconduct by the U.S government. However, this settlement doesn't
include fines for mistreating their workers and compensating other customers
that suffered due to the malevolent act of this financial institution. The
fascinating fact is, while a low tier worker was pushed to the level of burning
out to bring revenue from customers, senior executives found a way to ease
their work to multiply profits as they were aware of illegal conduct of the bank.
"The top managers of the community bank were aware of the unlawful and
unethical gaming practices as early as 2002," the settlement said. Though,
there's a long way to go for Wells Fargo out of allegations and regaining trust
of their customers.
The bigger question arising here is why big
institutions such as Wells Fargo are only brought to notice when the
circumstances have exacerbated to an extent that no penalty could reconcile the
trust between the company and a customer. The repercussions are more or less
same for the public, with government imposing a major fine on the misconduct
but not considerate enough to compensate the customers who undergo such a
mental harassment. Guess it's high time for the regulating authorities to keep
financial institutions in a check so that no malice intent could be ratified on
an innocent person who's only mistake is that he owns a bank account in that bank.
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