State treasurer sanctions Wells Fargo due to accounts scandal

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

State treasurer sanctions Wells Fargo due to accounts scandal

California State Treasurer John Chiang has suspended Wells Fargo from business relationships worth billions for one year due to the accounts scandal.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KGO) -- State Treasurer John Chiang has made a major announcement about San Francisco-based Wells Fargo - he's suspended the bank from business relationships worth billions for one year due to the accounts scandal.

In a statement, he accuses Wells Fargo of "wanton greed" and "reckless lack of institutional control." He also called the accounts scandal "a legal and ethical outrage" that must be punished.

The sanctions include suspension of investments by the Treasurer's Office in all Wells Fargo securities, suspension of the use of Wells Fargo as a broker-dealer for purchasing of investments by his office, and the suspension of Wells Fargo as a managing underwriter on negotiated sales of California state bonds where the Treasurer appoints the underwriter.

We're also learning that Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf is set to tell Congress the bank will end its sales goals this Saturday, which is earlier than expected.

Those sales goals are at the center of a scandal, in which Wells Fargo employees opened millions of accounts without customers' permission in order to reach those goals.

The bank has agreed to pay $185 million dollars to settle allegations.