Tester Slams Wells Fargo for Dodging Questions, Demands Answers

Senator Requests More Accountability and Transparency from the Bank and its Board

(Helena, Mont.) – Senator Jon Tester is calling on the Wells Fargo Board of Directors to respond to questions about the bank’s ongoing fraud investigation over deceptive sales practices.

In a letter to the bank and its board, Tester demanded answers, accountability and transparency.

“As you know, continued failure to answer questions – especially basic questions – about the causes and consequences of the fraud that Wells Fargo permitted for many years does nothing to restore the trust of Wells Fargo’s customers and shareholders, many of whom are our constituents,” Tester wrote.

The letter goes on to demand that the Wells Fargo Board answer the Senate Banking Committee’s questions, including who’s leading the investigation, why the investigation wasn’t launched earlier, and what the board is doing to ensure this kind of systematic fraud and abuse does not happen again.

This letter is a follow-up to the one Tester and his colleagues sent back in September and includes many similar questions that the bank has so far failed or refused to answer.

Back in September, Tester grilled former Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf during a Banking Committee hearing, which was called after it was discovered that the bank had opened over two million deposit and credit card accounts without customers’ knowledge and 5,300 bank employees were terminated over the course of several years.

“Fifty-three hundred people is more people than live in most towns in Montana,” Tester told Stumpf during the hearing. “Two million is twice the population of the entire state. This is a major screw up that went on for far, far, far too long.”

Tester has also created a portal for constituents to submit their stories, questions and concerns regarding the scandal-particularly if they think they might have been affected.

And earlier this month Tester introduced legislation to ensure Wells Fargo victims could seek justice through the courts.

You can read the letter HERE.