House Democrat Demands A Meeting With Wells Fargo Executives

Executives at Wells Fargo may soon face an interview with the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee.

Reuters reported that Maxine Waters of California, the House Financial Services ranking member, sent a letter requesting that Wells Fargo CEO Timothy Sloan and other senior officials at the company provide answers to questions concerning the bank’s big fake accounts scandal last year.

“I reiterate my request that Wells Fargo provide Democratic Committee staff the same opportunity it provided to Republican Committee staff to meet with the aforementioned executives for unrecorded interviews,” Waters wrote.

“Scheduling these interviews would be a small step in reassuring me and my staff that Wells Fargo is sincere when it says it wants to ‘make things right’ for its customers.”

It’s clear the consequences of the bank’s scandal aren’t going away any time soon.

Last year it was revealed that bank employees opened 1,534,280 unauthorized deposit accounts, allowing Wells Fargo to accrue a total of $2 million in fees. The fake accounts scandal led to the firing of thousands of employees and also resulted in $185 million in fines for the company.

In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing earlier this month, Wells Fargo said that its legal fees for 2016 may have been $1.8 billion, which is $100 million more than the bank previously forecasted.

According to a report highlighting the SEC filing, three months ago, Wells Fargo said the fees would be $100 million less than what it is now saying. The bank also disclosed that the Department of Justice is looking into an incident in which Wells Fargo’s software was used in deals outside of the U.S., which are banned in America.

Wells Fargo said it “self-identified” the issue and that it is cooperating with the Department of Justice. The bank also warned there could be more customers who are impacted by the fake account opening scandal, but said it doesn’t expect a big financial hit as a result.