{"id":44161,"date":"2017-10-10T09:59:58","date_gmt":"2017-10-10T13:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ino.com\/blog\/?p=44161"},"modified":"2017-10-10T09:59:58","modified_gmt":"2017-10-10T13:59:58","slug":"will-fed-drop-hammer-wells-fargo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwtest.ino.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/will-fed-drop-hammer-wells-fargo\/","title":{"rendered":"Will The Fed Drop The Hammer On Wells Fargo?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"George<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen made some short \u2013 but very direct \u2013 comments about one of the big banks under the Fed\u2019s oversight.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me say that I consider the behavior of Wells Fargo toward its customers to have been egregious and unacceptable,\u201d she said at her press conference following the Fed\u2019s September monetary policy meeting. \u201cWe take our supervision responsibilities of the company very seriously. And we are attempting to understand what the root causes of those problems are and to address them.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, for a person one of whose job requirements is to always speak cryptically, vague and ambiguously in public \u2013 Fedspeak, in other words \u2013 to call out one of the largest banks in the country and call its behavior \u201cegregious and unacceptable\u201d is pretty startling. That\u2019s why I believe a major fine \u2013 at least $1 billion \u2013 against the Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)<\/a><\/strong> by the Fed is coming. <\/p>\n

Not only would it be justified, but certainly not out of line given past Fed penalties against other banks that committed far less \u201cegregious\u201d misdeeds. The fact that all of Wells\u2019s transgressions were highly publicized and committed against consumers \u2013 millions of them \u2013 makes it even more imperative that the Fed let Wells have it between the eyes. <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at some recent big fines imposed by the Fed against the banks it regulates:<\/p>\n