'Too Many Criminals Upstairs': Comments of the Week
October 7, 2016 7:30 AM
American Banker readers share their views on the most pressing banking topics of the week. Comments are excerpted from reader response sections of AmericanBanker.com articles and our social media platforms.
Rejecting the idea, in the wake of the Wells Fargo scandal, to require all loan officers to obtain licensing now required just for non-depository institutions:
"Give people a little credit. They know they are being offered something when the topic comes up. But, when they are signed up without their knowledge, that is fraud. Another course and more compliance won't/can't stop that. It's also the reason Managers who know this is happening should be wearing stripes instead of getting their Walking Papers and collecting $1.4M. Senior Mgmt knows it's best to let her just go away happy, or, they might be wearing stripes. Too many criminals upstairs."
Related Article:
On Wells Fargo and the bank's CEO, John Stumpf:
"Too big to manage and too big to regulate issues like these. The CEO and the board are responsible for the culture and its consequences. He has to go."
Related Article:
On the belief that cross-selling is an ethical practice:
"Of course there are plenty of ethical sales people and of course sales are needed to grow. No one disputes that. The term 'sales culture' means different things to different people. If incentives, however, are not aligned with customer interest, and if sales are pushed, then no one benefits neither those on the inside, nor the consumers whose perspective they would be well advised to consider if they are to make 'customer-centric' more than a cliché."
Related Article:
On concerns that weak federal regulation, including by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, allows banks to get away with too much:
"It accounts for the continuing mis-selling of credit card add-ons, overdraft coverage, force-placed insurance, redlining, robo-signed collection efforts,and the like at the Too Big To Behave Banks. None of which are ever sufficiently punished to eradicate the practices. The big banks know that there is NO iron fist in the OCC's velvet glove.
Related Article:
On new deposit data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (via <a href="https://twitter.com/FISGlobal/status/783404360533438464" target="_blank">Twitter</a>):
"As if competition for community banks wasn't enough, larger banks are grabbing more deposits."
Related Article:
On the OCC not issuing Wells Fargo's Community Reinvestment Act score in eight years:
"Let's thank the OCC for another contribution to ensuring that the [Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's] argument for its existence will continue to gain traction with the public and the media. How about an investigation of the OCC's supervision of Wells?"
Related Article:
On requiring an exam and licensing for loan officers at depository institutions, similar to requirements for other financial services companies:
"Licensing and registration has worked well in so many other fields, not just my engineering field, but also accounting, legal and medical fields. Why couldn't it work in banking too?"
Related Article:
