This story appeared in Bank Digest.
Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) have released new letters from the Federal Reserve Board, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in response to inquiries they sent the regulators in March 2019 regarding Wells Fargo.
In separate letters sent to the OCC and CFPB and to the Fed, the senators had expressed concern about Wells Fargo's apparent unwillingness to compensate customers harmed by the bank's illegal auto-lending practices, despite an obligation to do so under its settlement with the OCC and CFPB, and urged the agencies to use their enforcement tools to remove then-CEO Tim Sloan. The senators' letter to the Fed also cited a recent Securities and Exchange Commission fine for overcharging retail mutual fund investors and urged the Fed to refrain from lifting Wells Fargo's growth restriction until Sloan was replaced.
According to Warren's press release, the agencies said in their response letters that Wells Fargo has not satisfied its obligations under existing consent orders, which require the bank to remediate customers harmed by its wrongdoing and impose reforms to end the bank's unlawful activity.