SAN FRANCISCO–Despite the demand for workers in a tight labor market, former employees of Wells Fargo who were among the more than 5,000 purged as part of its account-opening scandal are reporting they can’t find jobs.
As CUToday.info reported, those employees were fired beginning in the years before 2016, when news of the fake account scandal became public. In all, more than two-million fake accounts were opened by employees scrambling to make aggressive cross-sales targets set for them by higher management that mandated eight accounts per customer.
Gerard Camerino, for example, was fired in 2018 by Wells Fargo for opening fake accounts, although he told the Wall Street Journal he did not do so. He has since applied to more than two-dozen jobs in the financial services industry and has not been considered for any of them, he told the publication.
He said he also reached out to the bank’s HR department, which told him there is nothing that can be done. “It’s pretty devastating,” he told the Wall Street Journal.
‘Pervasive Pressure’
“Firing employees suspected of dishonesty is standard practice at banks, where success depends on customers trusting a firm enough to leave their money there. But in the case of Wells Fargo, regulators, lawmakers and even the bank’s own board have questioned whether the junior staffers were really the ones to blame,” the Journal noted, citing its previous reporting. “Pervasive pressure from managers to meet aggressive sales goals was the root cause of the problem, according to a report from the board. That has been little consolation for low-level employees caught up in the scandal. Many have found they are now effectively blacklisted from the banking industry.”
Like 600 other employees, Camerino was registered with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, with Wells Fargo stating on his public Finra record that he was fired over “quality of sales and short-term funding of bank accounts,” boilerplate language used in many terminations.
‘Fundamental Changes’
A bank spokesperson told the Journal Wells Fargo has “made fundamental changes to address the issues that may have contributed to undue sales pressure, while also holding team members at all levels accountable.”
Executives believe they must fire anyone suspected of opening fake accounts to meet the terms of insurance coverage that protects the bank from fraud-related losses, according to the board report, the Journal said.
The Journal added that many fired employees say the investigations are stacked against them, reporting it spoke to nearly two dozen former retail-bank staffers, including many who were fired. Wells Fargo declined to comment specifically on the ex-employees named its story. A spokesperson told the publication “a thorough process was followed and the terminations were warranted based on the actions of the individuals.”