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20 Jul 2011 23:20

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U.S.: Federal Reserve slaps Wells Fargo with puny $85 million penalty

  • $85 millionpaid by Wells Fargo for its role in the subprime mortgage fiasco; the penalty was issued by the Federal Reserve
  • $25 billion received by Wells Fargo from the Troubled Assets Relief Program, colloquially known as the bailout source
  • » This is both the largest consumer protection fine ever levied by the Fed and the first time the institution has punished a bank for nudging customers into subprime loans. There’s more to come, too; in addition to the fine, the order also “requires that Wells Fargo compensate affected borrowers,” although it’s unclear how this will work. It’s better than nothing, but $85 million just seems a bit low; as a point of comparison, the bank made $2.5 billion in the first three months of 2010 alone.

08 May 2010 12:46

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Politics: Sen. Richard Shelby: Financial reform missing Fannie, Freddie

  • When home prices finally collapsed, these ticking time bombs exploded, saddling taxpayers with hundreds of billions of dollars of debt.
  • Sen. Richard Shelby • Saying why he thinks the financial reform bill should include Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two major mortgage companies that fell apart during the financial crisis. He thinks that the financial reform bill should do something about the mortgage giants, which he characterized as costing taxpayers significant amounts of money. During his statement, in response to Obama’s weekly radio address (which tackled health care’s successes), Shelby also criticized a proposed consumer protection watchdog bureau in the Federal Reserve for possibly raising costs for taxpayers. source