Modern Forms of Oppression Against Black People - Series 1/10 | Wells Fargo

 

Senator Sherrod Brown, Chair of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, sent a letter to Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf, calling out the megabank for its history of consumer abuse and mismanagement. The letter highlights Wells Fargo's inability to address its longstanding risk management failures, including racial disparities in mortgage lending, fake job interviews for minority and female candidates, and anti-money laundering violations.

These issues add to the list of consumer abuses and compliance breakdowns that led to a growth restriction imposed on Wells Fargo in 2018. Despite promises made to the American people following the fake accounts scandal, Wells Fargo has failed to live up to its obligations. For Black people, in particular, this failure is reflected in reports of racial discrimination in the refinancing process and the opening of millions of fake customer accounts.

Wells Fargo must address these issues and improve its governance and risk management before it can grow in size and resume normal operations (Brown: Wells Fargo Has Again Failed Its Customers and Workers, 2022).

Wells Fargo Owns Wachovia Bank

"In 2008, Wells Fargo & Company acquired Wachovia Corporation to create North America’s most extensive distribution system for financial services, Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through approximately 4,600 retail banking branches, more than 11,000 ATMs, the internet (wellsfargo.com), and other distribution channels across North America and internationally" (Wachovia Is Now Wells Fargo - Wells Fargo, n.d.). 

 

 Wells Fargo owns Wachovia, so the ongoing discrimination that is taking place is no modern-day surprise (Ben Crump, 2022). 

 

 Of course, a long list of banks was involved in the slave trade. An interesting quote by  Whitmare (n.d), " The bank said incomplete records make it impossible to know how many slaves were owned by either institution, but that specific transactional records show the Georgia bank owned at least 162 slaves and the Bank of Charleston accepted at least 529 slaves as collateral on mortgaged properties or loans" (p. 1).

 

Here is just one of the many-day links to the current era of discrimination. Of course, if you ask those who do not read, they will tell you slavery is over and everything is fine in 2023 for black people. Good luck looking for the 111-page report from Wachovia Bank; we could not find it.

References

Ben Crump. (2022, August 17). Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump and Plaintiffs Say Wells Fargo’s Discriminatory Mortgage Practices are Killing Black Opportunity and Preventing Black Families and Neighborhoods From Thriving - Ben Crump. https://bencrump.com/press/wells-fargos-discriminatory-mortgage-practices-are-killing-black-opportunity-and-preventing-black-families/

Bloomberg Quicktake. (2022b, March 21). Wells Fargo Sued for Discriminating Against Black Homeowners [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQnrK90sCfA

Brown: Wells Fargo Has Again Failed Its Customers and Workers. (2022, May 31). United States Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. https://www.banking.senate.gov/newsroom/majority/brown-wells-fargo-customers-workers

TIM WHITMIRE. (n.d.). Wachovia Corp. says two predecessor banks owned nearly 700 slaves. Canadian Press, The.

Wachovia Is Now Wells Fargo - Wells Fargo. (n.d.-b). https://www.wellsfargo.com/about/corporate/wachovia/

 Wachovia Corporation Admits Ties To Slavery; Apologizes. (2005). Jet, 107(25), 22.