{"id":44746,"date":"2017-12-15T11:02:33","date_gmt":"2017-12-15T16:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ino.com\/blog\/?p=44746"},"modified":"2017-12-15T11:02:33","modified_gmt":"2017-12-15T16:02:33","slug":"trump-bad-bankers-beware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwtest.ino.com\/blog\/2017\/12\/trump-bad-bankers-beware\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump: Bad Bankers Beware"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"margin: 0 0;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/\/www.ino.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/GeorgeYacik_Contributor_ImageBadge350.png\" alt=\"George Yacik - INO.com Contributor - Fed &amp; Interest Rates\" width=\"350\" height=\"131\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-30496\" style=\"padding-top: 10px;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ino.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/GeorgeYacik_Contributor_ImageBadge350.png 350w, https:\/\/www.ino.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/GeorgeYacik_Contributor_ImageBadge350-300x112.png 300w, https:\/\/www.ino.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/GeorgeYacik_Contributor_ImageBadge350-270x100.png 270w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0 0;\"><br style=\"clear:both;\"><\/p>\n<p>So now President Trump has thrown himself into the discussion about Wells Fargo. Maybe now the bank will get the justice it deserves. And maybe now the message about Trump\u2019s intentions about financial regulation will become less fake.<\/p>\n<p>First a little background. Three months ago Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen made some pretty startling comments for a Fed chief, publicly criticizing Wells\u2019 behavior toward its customers as \u201cegregious and unacceptable.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>She was talking, of course, about the bank\u2019s years-long practice of signing up its customers for checking accounts, savings accounts, credit cards and other products without asking their permission or even telling them. But since then there have been reports and admissions by the bank of several other excesses, such as charging auto loan customers for insurance they didn\u2019t ask for, dunning mortgage customers for interest rate-lock extension fees when the bank itself caused the delays, overcharging military veterans on mortgage refinance loans, and allegedly closing customers\u2019 accounts without telling them why it did so. <\/p>\n<p>You would think that the Fed \u2013 which regulates Wells and other big banks \u2013 would have come down on the bank by now. Yet nothing\u2019s happened since Yellen made those comments.<\/p>\n<p>Then last week the president injected himself into the fray.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cFines and penalties against Wells Fargo Bank for their bad acts against their customers and others will not be dropped, as has incorrectly been reported, but will be pursued and, if anything, substantially increased,\u201d the president tweeted. \u201cI will cut Regs but make penalties severe when caught cheating!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He was responding to a news report that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was reviewing potential fines against the bank for its mortgage problems. The CFPB has already fined the bank $100 million \u2013 a mere slap on the wrist \u2013 over the phony accounts scandal, but now, apparently, is ready to hit it again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a matter of principle, acting director [Mick] Mulvaney shares the president\u2019s firm commitment to punishing bad actors and protecting American consumers,\u201d John Czwartacki, a CFPB spokesman, added. <\/p>\n<p>So now we\u2019ve had two of the most powerful government officials in the land \u2013 the President of the United States and the head of the Fed\u2013 saying publicly that Wells Fargo is a bad actor. But when is it actually going to be punished? Pretty soon, apparently, if we can believe the president.<\/p>\n<p>Many people are under the impression that because the Trump Administration wants to ease the regulatory burden on banks \u2013 just as it wants to do for lots of industries, and is already doing so \u2013 that also means that it\u2019s content to sit back and let companies get away with wrongful, if not illegal, behavior. The president\u2019s tweet should dispel that notion. <\/p>\n<p>Trump and Mulvaney have come under a lot of criticism for their supposed high-jacking of the CFPB leadership following the departure of the former director, Richard Cordray, on the Friday after Thanksgiving and naming his own replacement, which a federal judge subsequently rejected. These same critics would have us believe that without the fearless Cordray not watching the henhouse, Trump and Mulvaney are happy to let the wolves in.<\/p>\n<p>It looks more like the opposite is the case.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s not forget that also back in September; it was reported that the CFPB\u2019s own lawyers had argued for hitting Wells with a $10 billion penalty over the phony accounts scandal, rather than the laughable $100 million it agreed to. Needless to say, Cordray, who is now safely back in Ohio running for governor, has yet to explain why he agreed to such a ridiculously low settlement given his supposed passion to protect innocent consumers from the big, bad banks. He also has yet to explain why the accounts scandal went on for so long under the CFPB\u2019s nose \u2013 remember, it was the Los Angeles Times that broke the story, not the agency empowered to regulate it.<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s not the only instance of the valiant Cordray going to bat for America\u2019s consumers. <\/p>\n<p>Reuters reported this week that as he slinked out the door last month, Cordray approved the terms of a settlement with Wells over the mortgage matter involving \u201ctens of millions of dollars,\u201d which would be another slap on the wrist. That\u2019s apparently what has Mulvaney and Trump angry about, as they should be.<\/p>\n<p>In September, Reuters said, the Republican staff of the House Financial Services Committee wrote a report titled \u201cDid the CFPB let Wells Fargo \u2018Beat the Rap\u2019?\u201d in which it said the agency may have had room to seek a penalty of $10 billion or more against Wells \u2013 as did the CFPB\u2019s own legal staff \u2013 but instead settled for 1% of that figure. That committee\u2019s policy director, Brian Johnson, is now Mulvaney\u2019s senior adviser at the CFPB. If I were Wells or one of its investors, I would be worried.<\/p>\n<p>The CFPB issue is now shaping up like so many other criticisms of Donald Trump, namely that the exact opposite of what many \u2013 most? \u2013 People believe is the real truth. Meanwhile, the defenders of Cordray continue to cry crocodile tears over his departure, rather than criticizing his self-righteous political grandstanding while failing to do his job \u2013 and letting banks get away with murder.<\/p>\n<p>Visit back to read my next article! <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ino.com\/blog\/meet-george-yacik\/\" target=\"_blank\">George Yacik<\/a><br \/>\nINO.com Contributor - Fed & Interest Rates<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12px; font-style: italic;\">Disclosure: This article is the opinion of the contributor themselves. The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. This contributor is not receiving compensation (other than from INO.com) for their opinion.<\/span><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So now President Trump has thrown himself into the discussion about Wells Fargo. Maybe now the bank will get the justice it deserves. And maybe now the message about Trump\u2019s intentions about financial regulation will become less fake. First a little background. Three months ago Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen made some pretty startling comments [&hellip;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6920],"tags":[9137,8929,7308,9136,6938,7333,9139,8771,5941,5442,9138,7372],"class_list":["post-44746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ino-com-contributors","tag-bank-fines","tag-consumer-financial-protection-bureau-cfpb","tag-federal-reserve-chair-janet-yellen","tag-fedspeak","tag-george-yacik","tag-geroge-yacik","tag-john-stumpf","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-senate-banking-committee","tag-the-federal-reserve","tag-timothy-sloan","tag-wells-fargo-company-nysewfc"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.4 (Yoast SEO v23.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Trump: Bad Bankers Beware - INO.com Trader&#039;s Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"President Trump has thrown himself into the discussion about Wells Fargo. 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