Congressman Al Green’s Statement on the Financial Services Committee’s Hearing on Wells Fargo Opening Unauthorized Customer Accounts

(Washington, DC)—On Thursday, September 29, 2016, Congressman Al Green (TX-09), Ranking Member of the Financial Services Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, released the following statement on the Financial Services Committee’s Hearing on Wells Fargo’s opening of unauthorized customer accounts.

“With second quarter earnings of $5.6 billion, their recent and most profitable quarter ever, the Wells Fargo fiasco is not about need, it is about greed. It is about the same kind of greed that created the destructive use of no-document loans, negative amortization, interest-only loans, pre-payment penalties that coincided with teaser rates, and credit default swaps (so-called exotic products), all of which created the Great Recession’s housing bubble and golden parachutes for many top executives.

“Wells Fargo’s cross-selling has become its cross-selling bank bubble. Wells Fargo used cross-selling to give a false impression of customer growth that enticed consumers to purchase false growth stocks, which created golden parachutes for some top executives with compensation tied to stock growth. Similar to the housing bubble, Wells Fargo’s cross-selling bubble has burst, and stockholders are left holding the bag of what may be declining false-growth stocks.

“The question we must now face is: How pervasive are these cross-selling practices? To find out, we must bring top bank executives before the committee. Further, sending entry-level workers to jail for crimes that befit top-level executives will not end this criminal behavior. Top-level executives must also face criminal punishment.

“Finally, we dare not allow our failure to exercise oversight jurisdiction to give the impression of being a part of the problem.”