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The main Wells Fargo problem like you mention is their unethical act of using cu

ID: 325262 • Letter: T

Question

The main Wells Fargo problem like you mention is their unethical act of using customer account in order to charge them all kind of charges. I believe all bank tend to do this. They make all kind of charges excuses from overdraft fee to banking fee for any kind of transactions. They will do anything to achieve the the kind of revenue that they are aiming for specially if they have to meet a specific deadline for certain numbers goal. However, I don't agree with them taking customers old accounts and opening new one without the customer consent. They should ask for the customer consent, ask for their permission and fully disclose all kind of information regarding the new account.

Explanation / Answer

Based on the case given, it is unethical and against best practices that one entity opens an account for banking transactions without proper authorization. This can also be categorized as a fraudulent activity since the information is being used without the consent of the individual.

It has become a common practice across banks to overcharge customers for each and every transaction or query or statement which they generate. Banks have a target for achieving a certain amount of revenue and they do this though promotional activities of credit cards, loans, mortgages etc. But it could still be possible that they are finding themselves short on the target. In such cases, they may tend to use unethical practices to increase transaction rates, account holding rates, operating costs etc. As given in the case, it is the same scenario at Wells Fargo.

But opening an account without others consent should be viable for lawsuit against the firm. The only activity the firm should have done in this case was to inform the account owner of its status and ask him for permission to renew the account or create a new one while closing the older one, provided a confirmation was given in writing by the account owner.