Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines • Hacker News Board

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#81

Post by p-funk » Fri, Apr 20, 2018, 6:31 PM UTC

heurist wrote: post #38

aphextron wrote: post #4

Something has happened to big banks along the way, where they no longer actually provide banking services to their customers. When I walk into a Wells Fargo branch now and sit down with a "banker" to take care of my accounts, it consists of sitting next to them while they call 1-800-WELLSFARGO for me and talk to a call center. There simply is no service anymore. I walked into my local branch to open up an IRA last we…

It's definitely an industry ripe for rebirth. For instance, I should be able to partition my money into several lightweight accounts - one for groceries, one for home expenses, investment, etc - and automatically have fractions of my deposits sent to those accounts so my budgeting and money management are handled without any effort on my part. I should have lightweight cards available for each of those accounts with…

I've been planning a side project with a lot of those features. That's exactly how I think about my budgeting and that's exactly how I would like to allocate my money. I'm really not aware of any way to do this currently, apart from a lot of manual work in a spreadsheet, which is annoying and still requires restraint in spending. Mint isn't even that helpful when it comes to budgeting because their alerts and categories are always inconsistent and they change categories that you've set for no apparent reason. Not to mention the ads.

Unfortunately, getting data from bank accounts is a pain due to bank security. The approach I was going to use just to get started was to export Mint's data as a csv, and then build an app around that until I read up on the bank transaction formats that would let you pull your transaction history. Not ideal, though.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#82

Post by mikestew » Fri, Apr 20, 2018, 6:31 PM UTC

Rapzid wrote: post #36

aphextron wrote: post #4

Something has happened to big banks along the way, where they no longer actually provide banking services to their customers. When I walk into a Wells Fargo branch now and sit down with a "banker" to take care of my accounts, it consists of sitting next to them while they call 1-800-WELLSFARGO for me and talk to a call center. There simply is no service anymore. I walked into my local branch to open up an IRA last we…

I wonder if all these small banks have to re-invent the SaaS wheel, or if there is a company out there providing a banking platform to them...

First Tech in the Pacific Northwest used to invent their own wheel, and it was great. Usable UI, 2FA; I had no complaints. Then they switched to what I assume is some pre-packaged SaaS. It's awful. Not even an attempt at MFA, just UID/PWD and off you go. UI sucks. Stuff doesn't work if you don't allow popups, but doesn't fail in such a way as to make root cause obvious ("here's an obscure error message with a string of hex numbers..."). I wish they'd go back to what they had.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#83

Post by binarymax » Fri, Apr 20, 2018, 6:31 PM UTC

aphextron wrote: post #4

Something has happened to big banks along the way, where they no longer actually provide banking services to their customers. When I walk into a Wells Fargo branch now and sit down with a "banker" to take care of my accounts, it consists of sitting next to them while they call 1-800-WELLSFARGO for me and talk to a call center. There simply is no service anymore. I walked into my local branch to open up an IRA last we…

If only more people did what you did, take your money to the local bank or credit union. If they don't have any more customers they can't pull these shenanigans.

I've been with a credit union (ESL) for 5 years now and they are amazing.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#84

Post by rgbrenner » Fri, Apr 20, 2018, 6:32 PM UTC

rb808 wrote: post #12

djschnei wrote: post #5

Where does the fine go? Does it get divvied up amongst the people affected by WF's wrongdoing?

> Does it get divvied up amongst the people affected by WF's wrongdoing? Are you crazy? The fines usually get distributed around different politicians to spend on their favorite things. Like this https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/editorials/2014/07/14... Which is why these fines will continue. Everyone hates the banks so the regulators can just keep fining them for everything indefinitely, when they run out of i…

New York has nothing to do with the CFPD. The CFPD's civil penalty fund is legally mandated to use all money for two things only: victim compensation, and consumer education and financial literacy programs.

The GAO has audited the CFPD, and verified the funds are being spent in accordance with the law.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#85

Post by saalweachter » Fri, Apr 20, 2018, 6:33 PM UTC

guelo wrote: post #30

djschnei wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, the massive restructuring you're referring to would likely need to be in the form of deregulation. It's unfortunate because deregulating something is typically a non-discussion. Our banking regulations make almost no distinction between massive, "too big to fail" banks and small community banks. Like most regulation, it's the massive companies that can foot the bill for complying with regulation, creat…

That deregulation already happened a month or two ago. But it's bullshit because the banks were awful before Dodd Frank too. What Obama should have done during the crisis is nationalize the failing big banks instead of bailing them out and then broken them down into a hundred little banks and sold them off.

The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act was enacted October 3, 2008, a month and a day before the election and nearly four months before Obama was inaugurated as President. While both McCain and Obama voted in favor of the act, and issued a joint statement in favor of the action as Presidential candidates, that part of the crisis was over and done with before he took office.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#86

Post by JustSomeNobody » Fri, Apr 20, 2018, 6:33 PM UTC

aphextron wrote: post #4

Something has happened to big banks along the way, where they no longer actually provide banking services to their customers. When I walk into a Wells Fargo branch now and sit down with a "banker" to take care of my accounts, it consists of sitting next to them while they call 1-800-WELLSFARGO for me and talk to a call center. There simply is no service anymore. I walked into my local branch to open up an IRA last we…

I got an email recently from WF about the issue with them opening accounts in customer's names without them knowing. The email said something to the effect of contact them if I think an account was opened that I didn't authorize.

Why the heck is the burden on ME to go look?

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#87

Post by rgbrenner » Fri, Apr 20, 2018, 6:33 PM UTC

monster_group wrote: post #23

So the government gets to keep $1B collected from WF. What about the people who overpaid all those fees? Are they being refunded?

The CFPD is required to use all money from fines for victim compensation, and where that's not practical, they keep it to compensate future victims or they can spend it on consumer education and financial literacy programs.

They are not permitted to spend the money on anything else.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#88

Post by heurist » Fri, Apr 20, 2018, 6:35 PM UTC

ericcholis wrote: post #76

heurist wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's definitely an industry ripe for rebirth. For instance, I should be able to partition my money into several lightweight accounts - one for groceries, one for home expenses, investment, etc - and automatically have fractions of my deposits sent to those accounts so my budgeting and money management are handled without any effort on my part. I should have lightweight cards available for each of those accounts with…

Simple[1] is pretty close. Create "Goals" for any amount and time period, Save $X by Y Date . Simple automatically allocates money to your Goals from your Available Balance daily, every friday, or any other schedule. They show you a "Safe to Spend" balance which is your Available Balance minus your total Goals. You can associate a Goal with a spending category, say Groceries, and have all transactions marked Grocerie…

That's Random Startup #347 ;) I have considered trying Simple but not gotten around to it yet.

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#89

Post by corey_moncure » Fri, Apr 20, 2018, 6:36 PM UTC

rdiddly wrote: post #21

djschnei wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, the massive restructuring you're referring to would likely need to be in the form of deregulation. It's unfortunate because deregulating something is typically a non-discussion. Our banking regulations make almost no distinction between massive, "too big to fail" banks and small community banks. Like most regulation, it's the massive companies that can foot the bill for complying with regulation, creat…

Why is it always a choice between poorly-written regulations and no regulations?

Maybe writing regulations is hard. Have you tried it?

Re: Wells Fargo Hit with $1B in Fines

#90

Post by wpietri » Fri, Apr 20, 2018, 6:36 PM UTC

aphextron wrote: post #4

Something has happened to big banks along the way, where they no longer actually provide banking services to their customers. When I walk into a Wells Fargo branch now and sit down with a "banker" to take care of my accounts, it consists of sitting next to them while they call 1-800-WELLSFARGO for me and talk to a call center. There simply is no service anymore. I walked into my local branch to open up an IRA last we…

Agreed. I changed over to a local credit union from Bank of America a few years back. Their online banking is a bit more awkward, but I can always talk with an informed person, which more than makes up for it.

My theory is that banks started out personal, but as they have consolidated have become ever more industrial in their scale and processes. Unfortunately, industrial-style human interaction is pretty awful.

I think the massive restructuring will come as banks split tasks into a) fully automating the boring things, and b) creating really good tools that empower their front-line workers (instead of treating them as dumb peripherals).

If our current major banks all went the way of Blockbuster during that process, I'll shed no tears. Few will, I imagine.