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01 Dec 2011 14:36

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Biz: Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley moves on foreclosures

  • 5 major banks sued by Massachusetts over unlawful home foreclosures source
  • » The deluge of home foreclosures that the U.S. has suffered since the financial crisis has been a crippling blow to the general economy, land value rates in high-foreclosure areas, and most of all the families who’ve found themselves unceremoniously cast out. A notable amount of these foreclosures appear to have been fraudulently engineered, rife with examples of flat-out false documentation, as well as “robo-signing,” a practice in which foreclosure documents are fast-tracked with (in some cases) fraudulent signatures and without the signee ever having read them. This was the impetus for Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley filing suit against five major banks — BofA, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi, and Ally Financial.

17 Aug 2011 22:16

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Biz: Just what we all need: Wells Fargo to introduce a new fee on debit cards

  • 5 states will get a new $3 monthly fee from Wells Fargo; hooray!!! source
  • » Is one of them yours? Debit card users in Washington, Oregon, New Mexico, Nevada and Georgia could see a charge of $3 per month. Want to avoid the fee? Either sign up for a special account or simply stop using your debit card. Simple, right?

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.

25 May 2011 10:39

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Biz: clearXchange: The banking system’s years-late answer to PayPal?

  • what Three of the nation’s largest consumer banks — Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo — have created a system for simple money transfers via phone or e-mail.
  • why The new service, clearXchange, gets around a banking system that takes a really long time, requires a routing number, and has to go though the Federal Reserve’s tubes.
  • threat This model threatens PayPal, the  solution du jour for this problem — which will likely someday make more money than its corporate parent, eBay. Unless this new thing takes off. source

25 Feb 2011 23:26

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Biz: Bank Of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo feel heat over mortgages

  • The current environment of heightened regulatory scrutiny has the potential to subject the corporation to inquiries or investigations that could significantly adversely affect its reputation.
  • A statement from Bank of America • Noting in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the company could be subject to huge penalties over their abusive mortgage practices. They’re not alone; Wells Fargo and Citigroup ware in the same boat, and it’s all thanks to the shady way that the trio dealt with their foreclosures. The reports from the companies suggest that all three will take a financial hit for said shadiness. Bank of America says that the state and federal inquiries “could result in material fines, penalties, equitable remedies (including requiring default servicing or other process changes), or other enforcement actions, and result in significant legal costs.” In other words, they’re screwed for screwing over homeowners. Oops. source

23 Dec 2009 13:49

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Biz: Wells Fargo: We don’t need your stinkin’ bailout money anymore

  • $25 billion goes back to the government ASAP source

09 Apr 2009 21:17

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Biz, U.S.: The economy appears to be slowly emerging from its cocoon

  • Wells Fargo forecasted surprisingly good profits. source
  • Unemployment benefit filings are down for once. source
  • Retailers are predicting pretty solid April sales. source
  • The Dow reacted to this news by rallying +250. source
 

04 Feb 2009 10:24

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Biz: Yo, Wells Fargo: Going to Vegas on the taxpayer’s dime? Bad idea.

  • $25 billion the amount the bank got from taxpayers as part of the economic bailout last year source