EveryJoe » Wells-Fargo

Wells Fargo Helps Wildfire Victims

Stephen Kersey — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 03:55:02 +0000

The Wells Fargo Foundation is extending helping hands to victims of the wildfire of Los Angeles County by donating $25,000 to the American Red Cross of Greater Los Angeles. The wildfire, which is regarded as the largest in the modern history of the country, has destroyed more than five dozen houses.

“Wells Fargo has been a wonderful corporate benefactor,” said Paul Schulz, the American Red Cross of Greater Los Angeles’ CEO, “and we are hoping this donation will inspire others in the business community to give generously.”

The 2009 California wildfires have burned nearly 350,000 acres since August. The wildfires are still burning and have already taken the lives of two people.

“By contributing to the Red Cross,” said John Sotoodeh of Wells Fargo, “we are reaching out to help our area neighbors, friends, families and customers who were affected by the fires.”

Wells Fargo has more than 10,000 branches around the world and more than 12,000 ATMs.

Wells Fargo (Image: Flickr)

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Wells Fargo Helps Wildfire Victims

Wells Fargo Malibu Scandal Unearthed

Mark Ellis — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 02:28:15 +0000

After losing a significant amount of money to Bernard Madoff and his multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme, a Malibu couple was forced to return their $12 million beach house to Wells Fargo. A scandal erupted, though, when it was discovered that Cheronda Guyton, a Wells Fargo senior vice president in charge of foreclosed commercial properties, had been spending weekends in the foreclosed home, throwing parties and living the high-life, all the while prohibiting the house from being sold.

For many, Guyton’s brazen use of a multi-million dollar foreclosed home has reignited outrage about how banks that received billions of dollars in taxpayer money are behaving. Wells Fargo released a statement saying that it repossessed the house in May and was able to withhold it from the market as part of an agreement.

However, Wells Fargo did state that it is against company policy for employees to use foreclosed properties for personal use, which means that the bank may end up caving into public outcry and canning Guyton. Until then, though, Wells Fargo has plenty of image cleanup to do following an explosion of public outrage against the bank.

Image: Flickr

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Wells Fargo Malibu Scandal Unearthed

BofA and Wells Fargo to Accept IOUs

Mark Ellis — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 03:16:55 +0000

When California’s government ran out of cash to give to rightful income tax return recipients, it decided to instead issue thousands of IOUs that would give California time to recuperate its assets. Bank of America and Wells Fargo are now among the banks that will honor these IOUs.

Bank of America will begin accepting IOUs on September 9, immediately honoring the face value of the IOU, and interest will be paid thirty days later. No IOUs will be accepted after October 9, giving the over 100,000 Californian Bank of America customers a month to submit their IOUs. The process, though, has yet to be finalized.

Wells Fargo will begin redeeming IOUs on September 4 and will continue doing so until September 30. Any IOUs submitted after September 30 will still be accepted by Wells Fargo, but any interest accrued will not be paid. Wells Fargo and Bank of America are the two largest banks in California, with Bank of America holding onto $163 billion in 1,004 offices and Wells Fargo holding onto $112 billion in 1,005 offices.

Image: Flickr

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BofA and Wells Fargo to Accept IOUs

Wells Fargo Pays Govt. Back $25 Billion

Mark Ellis — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 02:54:28 +0000

Wells Fargo was one of the first banks to receive federal bailout money as part of the economic stimulus package and it will be one of the last to pay the government back what it borrowed. A Wells Fargo spokesperson stated that the company will return $25 billion to the government soon without selling any additional stock.

Out of the first nine huge financial institutions that received bailout money, only Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Citigroup have still not paid the government back. However, Bank of American and Citigroup both received aid on two separate occasions, with Bank of America recently having offered to pay back the $20 billion it took to help its acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co.

In order to repay money to the U.S. Treasury, banks have to get approval from their federal supervisor, show that they can easily be accessed through public equity markets, and be able to issue debt without the help of the FDIC. So far, no members of the Federal Reserve have issued any comments concerning Wells Fargo.

Image: Flickr

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Wells Fargo Pays Govt. Back $25 Billion

Illinois Sues Wells Fargo

Mark Ellis — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 22:52:42 +0000

Wells Fargo & Co. has a new lawsuit to deal with, this time facing the state of Illinois after Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan accused Wells Fargo of bias. According to Madigan’s lawsuit, Wells Fargo intentionally directed African-Americans and Latinos toward the infamous subprime mortgages, knowing aware of the high costs of these mortgages.

Madigan has stated that Wells Fargo is responsible for turning Illinois’ primarily black and Latino neighborhoods into strongholds for the controversial subprime mortgages. These allegedly illegal sales practices have overwhelmingly led to foreclosures in these neighborhoods, forcing otherwise innocent families out on the street because of Wells Fargo’s duplicity.

While minorities were being steered toward subprime mortgages, whites were offered lower-cost mortgages, says Madigan. In addition to Madigan’s lawsuit, two black homeowners in Chicago filed a class-action lawsuit in a federal court in the Northern District of California, claiming racial discrimination in Wells Fargo’s fees.

San-Francisco-based Wells Fargo is the second-largest mortgage lender and the fifth-largest bank in the United States.

Wells Fargo Center (Image: Flickr)

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Illinois Sues Wells Fargo

American Express a Good Stock Investment?

Stephen Kersey — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 03:50:13 +0000

Many experts around the stock market world are talking about how American Express could see its stock value rise throughout the rest of 2009. Currently, American Express stock is just under $19. Not long ago, the stock was sitting at higher than $50.

American Express Logo (Image: Flickr)

American Express took a hit when practically every other company in the financial industry saw their stock prices plummet. However, now experts are pointing to the fact that American Express requires its customers to pay off the card each month, which means that the credit risks associated with the company are much less. Additionally, unlike most credit card companies, American Express relies on transaction fees rather than interest fees.

This past week, Wells Fargo showed a surprisingly high profit. If American Express shows that their books are healthy, their stock could be a hot commodity in upcoming weeks. That said, not all their news is good. American Express has seen a higher than average number of charge-offs and delinquencies in recent months, which could definitely cut into its profits.

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American Express a Good Stock Investment?

Rally Over? Stocks Fall Again

Stephen Kersey — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 04:27:29 +0000

After a bit of optimism hit the stock market world on Wednesday, the bad news returned on Thursday. With the market tumbling today, that makes it six poor days out of the last seven.

Empty Wallet - Source: Flickr

In fact, Thursday was such a bad day in the stock market that it wiped away the positive gains that occurred on Wednesday. The Dow Jones industrial average fell to 6,594.4, a loss of more than 280. The Dow hasn’t been this low since the middle months of 2007.

The Standard & Poor’s index also dropped a little bit more than 4% to land on 682.6. The S&P is as low as it has been since 1996. The NASDAQ index fell around 4% as well, while the Russell 200 dropped almost 6% on the day.

Virtually every industry felt the sting on Thursday. The biggest losers were General Motors and a number of the companies in the struggling banking industry including Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America. Each of those three banks dropped at least 11% on the day. GM, on the other hand, fell more than 15%.

While some stock market experts think that the market may be nearing a bottom, other experts believe that the Dow Jones industrial average could end up at around 5,000 before the rebounding begins.

Source: Wire Reports

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Rally Over? Stocks Fall Again