WELLS FARGO’S UNAUTHORIZED CUSTOMER ACCOUNTS 1

Wells Fargo's Unauthorized Customer Accounts

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Wells Fargo's Unauthorized Customer Accounts

Attaining sales a goal is one of the key concerns of an organization's marketing

department and employees with undertaking any strategy to achieve this goal. Between 2002

and 2016, Wells Fargo's employees used fraud to meet impossible sales objectives by

opening millions of checking and savings account for their clients without their consent. They

used customer names to open accounts, sign them for bill payment programs and credit cards,

forged signatures, created fake personal IDs, and transferred their clients' money without

their knowledge (Flitter, 2020). While this is a leadership issue in which the organization

demonstrated a complete failure of its leadership at different levels, it is also an ethical issue.

Organizations are ethically required to protect clients' information and seek consent when

using their personal information, and the action of Well Fargo's employees violates this

ethical provision in practice. Saint Leo University commits to promoting dignity, respect,

integrity, and personal development. Considering the case, the employees in Wells Fargo

violated the values that promote respect and integrity as they misused their clients' personal

information.

By violating the provision of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on

financial institutions and banks' fair treatment of their clients, Wells Fargo was fined $185 to

various statutory agencies (Veetikazhi & Krishnan, 2019). The bank also faced criminal and

civil suits amounting to approximately $2.7 billion as the creation of the fake accounts

continued to have financial and legal ramifications on the company and its former bank

executives. While the organization was recognized as one of the most admirable banks in the

U.S by Fortune, the unethical practice affected its overall market performance and overall

public trust. One of the issues that the current management is concerned with is rebuilding the

banks' reputation ad trust.

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References

Flitter, E. (2020). The price of Wells Fargo's fake account scandal grows by $3 billion. The

New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/21/business/wells-fargo-

settlement.html

Veetikazhi, R., & Krishnan, G. (2019). Wells Fargo: Fall from great to miserable: A case

study on corporate governance failures. South Asian Journal of Business and

Management Cases, 8(1), 88-99. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F2277977918803476