When John Shrewsberry, CFO of Wells Fargo gave a consoling speech to his fellow c-suite bankers in New York City earlier this month we could sense the toxicity of life inside Wells Fargo.
Their ruthless behavior is even more evident after Kevin Pham, a former employee of the banking firm took to Facebook and penned a viral post telling everyone to peminantly suspend any account they hold at the San Fransisco bank.
To Wells Fargo Customers and Employees,
I’m a former Wells Fargo employee and am writing this to voice my concerns about the CEO’s response to the fraudulent account scandal and to suggest actions we can take as individuals to hold them accountable.
To give you some background, I worked at Wells Fargo from 2008 to 2010. During my time there, I witnessed the alleged toxic sales culture and victimization of unwitting customers first hand (yes this culture dates back to before 2011).
This extreme pressure forced bankers to specifically target the most vulnerable customers, such as the elderly, young, non-native english speakers, and financially unsophisticated.
I’ve heard of children of elderly customers coming in to ask why their parents had so many accounts that they didn’t use. I’ve seen low income customers have accounts charged off due to fees and their credit destroyed.
I admit, as a young and naive Teller, I participated in these practices, but didn’t realize the gravity of my actions until I became a Banker myself. I personally had a mental breakdown trying to reconcile the conflict between my job responsibilities and my ethics. I brought my concerns to my District Manager in 2010 and was accused of making excuses for my poor performance. I quit shortly after.
Source, Kevin Pham’s Facebook account
Pham goes on to condemn top executives of the bank for accepting zero responsibility for the fraudulent accounts. He then blasts the government for fining the company “0.8% of 2015 Net Income” for the nefarious banking scheme.
The young man also organized a two-day event at the Wells Fargo World headquarters where attendees are encouraged to #CloseYourAccount without rioting or burning hard-working businesses to the ground.
Also, tossing reporters into flaming barrels of garbage will not be tolerated.
On September 8th, federal regulators determined Wells Fargo employees secretly created millions of unauthorized bank and credit card accounts. These accounts were created to levy late-fees and other expenses against their customers to slowly siphon money into the banks coffers.
The company was fined $185 million dollars and CEO John Stumpf is expected to receive a stern talking to by the Senate Banking committee.
Kevin Pham expects “the bank’s army of high paid lawyers,” to protect the company’s top executives from receiving any real punishment. Therefore he is urging customers to close their accounts, Wells Fargo employees to seek employment elsewhere, and Carrie Tolstedt to return a portion of her $125 million bonus.
Like any good activist, Mr. Pham also announced he is short the company’s stock (ticker: WFC).
You can follow any updates from National Close Your Account Day by clicking here and viewing the recent posts on the event’s Facebook timeline.
I had this happen to me. I’m a Wells Fargo customer, one day I asked a quick question at the counter about getting an auto loan and then left. Next thing I know they are opening lines of credit and doing all kinds of crap. Didn’t find out for weeks. Was pissed.