Wells Fargo braces for losses as prosecutors delve into possible mortgage abuses

Wells Fargo & Co. is in talks with a group of federal and state prosecutors examining potential abuses related to mortgages as it continues to grapple with investigations and public outrage from its sales-practices scandal.

The bank disclosed in its most recent quarterly securities filing posted Thursday that it is in discussions with the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. That group, which includes the Justice Department, has levied billions of dollars in fines on other big U.S. banks, including a $16.65 billion payout from Bank of America Corp.BAC, +0.00%   and $13 billion from J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. JPM, -0.44%

The RMBS task force has raised “potential theories of liability” with Wells FargoWFC, +0.22%   related to certain mortgage practices, according to the bank’s filing. The bank had said in previous filings that it was responding to requests for information from government agencies related to the origination, underwriting and securitization of certain mortgages. The bank has produced documents for the Justice Department, but people familiar with the matter have previously said the process wasn’t progressing.

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Wells Fargo Faces Scrutiny for Black Marks on Ex-Employee Files

Three senators fired at Wells Fargo’s new chief executive with fresh ammunition on Thursday: the hundreds of termination notices the bank filed with an industry overseer over the last five years as employees left the company in connection with its sales scandal.

When brokers and certain other registered representatives leave a bank — voluntarily or otherwise — the company is required to file a notice with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, known as Finra. Called a “U5,” the form includes a field where the bank must disclose any allegations that played a role in the employee’s departure.

A negative comment on a U5 is a scorching mark that can make it almost impossible to find another job in the banking field.

“It’s like being blackballed,” said Marc Schifanelli, a lawyer who specializes in Finra arbitration. “It can be a showstopper for a career.”

Some former employees say that Wells Fargo used that power to retaliate against those who tried to blow the whistle on the bank’s fraudulent activities.

To investigate these claims, three Democratic senators asked Finra for data on Wells Fargo’s U5 filings. The responses they received “paint a disturbing picture,” the senators wrote in a letter to Timothy J. Sloan, Wells Fargo’s chief executive, on Thursday. Mr. Sloan took over from John G. Stumpf, who abruptly retired last month after intense criticism of his handling of the bank’s crisis.

The U5 forms, the senators wrote, “confirm that Wells Fargo had ample information about the scope of fraudulent sales practices” long before itreached a settlement in September with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

“In addition,” the letter continued, “public reports indicate that Wells Fargo may have filed inaccurate or incomplete Form U5s for fired employees and that the bank may have done so to retaliate against whistle-blowers. If this is the case, then it would appear that Wells Fargo concealed key information from regulators.”

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Citigroup Told Couple NOT to Pay Mortgage While Refinancing. Then They Got a Letter That Ruined Their Lives

Here we go again with the same repeated offender bankster: Dual Tracking!!!!

When Elizabeth and David Ball fell onto financially hard times after David lost his job in 2014, they decided to undergo a home loan modification.

Upon starting the process with CitiMortgage, Elizabeth clearly remembers asking how to proceed with the payments on their home.

She tells CBS 11:

“In one of the conversations, I was like should I make a house payment? They were like no! Don’t do that because that will confuse the issue, that will really mess things up.”

But when CitiMortgage’s collection department failed to receive mortgage payments, the Balls got a nasty surprise in the mail— a foreclosure warning.

Worried and confused, Elizabeth called CitiMortgage again to clarify the situation. The company told the mom again that it was nothing to worry about:

“She said, that department isn’t caught up with what we’re doing here in the modification department.”

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Wells Fargo : sales scandal extends to brokerage unit – U.S. senators

More trouble for Wells Fargo…

Wells Fargo & Co fired hundreds of brokerage employees for improper sales practices, three U.S. senators said on Thursday, widening the scope of a scandal which the fourth-largest U.S. bank has so far characterized as a retail banking problem.

In a letter to Wells Fargo Chief Executive Tim Sloan, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden and Robert Menendez questioned the bank’s disclosures about those employees’ dismissals in required regulatory filings.

The letter is the first indication that customers of the brokerage business, known as Wells Fargo Advisors, may also have been affected.

Wells Fargo said in September it would pay $185 million (148 million pounds) in penalties and $5 million to customers for opening up to 2 million deposit and credit-card accounts in customers’ names without their permission.

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