It can’t be good when you make it into this column, and Wells Fargo did make it there. Chuck Shepherd of News of the Weird notes how suspension of access to the judicial system is impacting the recent Wells Fargo debacle:
Wells Fargo Bank famously admitted last year that employees (pressured by a company incentive program) had fraudulently opened new accounts for about 2 million existing customers by forging their signatures. In an early lawsuit by a victim of the fraud (who had seven fraudulent accounts opened), the bank argued (and a court agreed!) that the lawsuit had to be handled by arbitration instead of a court of law because the customer had, in the original Wells Fargo contract (that dense, fine-print one he actually signed), agreed to arbitration for “all” disputes. A February Wells Fargo statement to Consumerist.com claimed that customers’ forgoing legal rights was actually for their own benefit, in that “arbitration” is faster and less expensive. [Consumerist, 3-1-2017]
Perhaps Wells Fargo will consider returning to the name of one of its earlier incarnations after this tar baby of a mess becomes part of the public consciousness: Norwest. Escaping bad publicity may become a necessity.
