By Frank J. Diekmann
It’s really hard not to pile on, isn’t it? Flat-out tempting. I mean, how could you not?
Not only has Wells Fargo fired more than 5,000 workers for opening up some two-million sham accounts in order to make completely unreachable sales targets, senior management—some of whom stand to make more than $100 million in salary bonuses—says there’s no cultural problem; the whole thing is the fault of those front-line tellers and customer service reps who were acting individually and on their own.
If it takes two people for a conspiracy, what in the world is 5,000? It’s a crime, of course, but we’ll see if anyone is ever held accountable. It’s back to the joke that made the rounds during the Wall Street meltdown: Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank and he can rob the world. The beauty of the latter? There’s no punishment, except for the occasional fine by regulators and the joined-at-the-hip caveat that paying the fine is “not an admission of any wrongdoing,” but instead a choice to “avoid further costs from litigation.”
No one’s guilty here, let’s move along, move along.
If you’re a credit union owned by your members and organized for their benefit it ain’t easy to avoid crowing and calling out to Wells Fargo customers to unhitch their wagons from the bank’s famed horses and giddyonup over to the CU.
But at least one person is urging credit unions to take the high trail and leave the smugness in the dust.
'This Is Not What Credit Unions Do'
During NAFCU’s Congressional Caucus last week—where Pavlovian members of Congress simply could not restrain from playing to the crowd and noting how credit unions are different from the big banks (insert applause here)–the trade group’s CEO, Dan Berger, recommended credit unions stress the positive.
“This is not what credit unions do,” said Berger. “This is a culture problem. This is a greed problem. This is a trying-to-hit-the-quarterly-numbers-for-Wall-Street problem. What I really want you to do is go back to your institutions and talk about your culture and doing the right things for members so we never have a problem like this.”
Berger said that strategy isn’t limited to just a credit union’s marketing or newsletter. He said credit unions hiking the Hill or meeting with their reps at home need to do the same.
“You have to work really, really hard to have 5,300 (former employees) do that,” said Berger.” It’s not just employees. There’s management involved, and it’s a culture problem. People are going to ask you about this on Capitol Hill. Don’t beat up on Wells Fargo. Talk about your stories, instead. Talk about what you’re doing to benefit your members and community. Talk about your culture, about being member-centric. This is just the beginning. I predict they are going to find additional things once they start investigating even further. But don’t talk about Wells. Talk about how you refinanced a mortgage for a member. Tell the story. That’s what they want to hear.”
New Horror Stories Every Day
Berger’s right on several fronts. First, much more is being found each day about Wells Fargo, as CUToday.info has reported. Numerous ex-employees have stepped forward with their own horror stories, and now people are suddenly remembering that Wells Fargo was hit earlier for illegal practices in its mortgage lending, student lending, and for kickbacks.
The good news here is the company’s CEO has said Wells Fargo holds itself to the highest ethical standards, so it’s got that going for it.
All the news around Wells Fargo also has employees and ex-employees at other big banks stepping into the sunlight and saying they have been forced to work in high-pressure sales environments where the stretch goals can only be met with stretch-the-truth behavior. I mean Wells Fargo had been demanding its employees cross sell customers into eight account relationships. Eight!
What should your credit union do? If you have a sales incentive program in place, it would be a good time to ask yourself what your ex-employees might say about it. If you’re a board member, you should be doing your own investigation—this is what representing the members is all about—just to make sure your hat is as white as you claim.
And then follow Dan Berger’s advice and let the media do the talking about Wells Fargo, while your credit union works to reinforce its people-helping-people ethos.
Those two things together will pull more weight than any team of horses ever will.
Frank J. Diekmann is Cooperator in Chief at CUToday.info and can be reached at Frank@CUToday.info or @FrankCUToday.