Links:
https://blogs.ubc.ca/mohitlohia/2016/09/12/businessethics/
Blog:
The Wells Fargo scandal has been one of the biggest controversies in 2016. This carries a lot of weight as in the very same year, Brexit was voted into existence, and Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. Essentially, the scandal revolved around the fact that Wells Fargo, which happens to be the largest bank in the United States based on purely market cap, was selling products to customers who had no demand for them. As Mohit, my fellow comm 101 student, pointed out in his blog, the average amount of services sold to a customer should be around 6 products, while the salesmen in the company were encouraged to sell the average customer 8 products, 2 more than necessary.
This demonstrates extremely unethical behavior on the part of the Bank, and should by no means be a standard at which other banks operate. In my opinion, banks, whom hold all the wealth in the world, should keep their CSR as a top priority at all times. Sadly, there are few repercussions being held against the bank. A $190 million fine has been charged, which is unlikely to make a difference in the daily operations of the business, as the company brought in $22.894 billion in profit, in the year 2015. The main punishment for Wells Fargo, will be the undoubted hit that the company’s public image will take. The bank has been hemorrhaging customers ever since the scandal became public, and has become a hated entity in the USA, and around the world. This caused the ex-CEO of the company to retire publicly. A new CEO was instated on the 12th of October, and has made his policy about damage control heard to the world.
In my opinion, Wells Fargo acting unethically should show other banks and monetary institutions to act ethically, in fear of what happened to Wells. If banks begin acting more ethically in the future, in the USA and internationally, this event likely acted as a catalyst for the change that took place.