Wells Fargo Fires Bankers for Expense Policy Violations

That is pretty harsh. I wonder if they fired someone who got hungry at 6:20 rather than 6:30 and then proceeded to work until 3 or 4 in the morning...

On the other hand, there is always that person who orders dinner at the office on Friday at 5:30, meets the delivery guy downstairs, and heads home with it. Less sympathy there.

Why don't they give a heads-up and just take the money out of the analyst's salary or something? Feel that's more reasonable than firing someone and going through the hiring process

It's kinda sad that the first thing that popped up in my mind was... when are full time apps opening up again?

I know this seems like a harsh reaction for a small offense. But technically they defrauded the company. They submitted and signed documents with information they falsified, specifically for the purpose of going around the stated reimbursement policy and getting paid.

I think many places would slap someone on the wrist for this, and it wouldn't surprise me if it was done with a wink and a nod from upper management. It also wouldn't completely surprise me if certain high performers who got mixed up in this received more lenient treatment. But this is Wells Fargo. Unless you've been under a rock lately you know they've got a culture problem with issues just like this, and they're desperate to fix it. I feel for those who lost their jobs over something so small. But at the same time, come on. No one should have known better that it was a stupid time to play fast and loose with the rules.

I'm shocked to see people defending this. Did you not read the article? Doctoring receipts seems like clear cut fraud. Can't imagine working for an MD who's judgement is so poor that they commit fraud to get $20 worth of Chinese food. Seriously, who does that?

They reported "a dozen" layoffs, but it was closer to ~30.

Their peers turned them in. Looks like some internal backstabbing/gamesmanship more than the results of an errant investigation.

WF never wanted to be at the top of the league table and they're actively reducing syndications and DCM. Sounds like they were looking to reduce staff and these folks volunteered.

I worked for Wells Fargo in their multifamily real estate capital group and I traveled extensively. I always got the cheapest flight, the cheapest car, the cheapest hotel, and the cheapest meals. My colleagues would abuse the fuck out of the expense program, staying at expensive hotels in hot locations, renting nice cars, and going to expensive restaurants. For whatever reason, I just always felt an ethical duty to my employer to not abuse the system.

I'm guessing this also may have been a way to stealthily lay people off without labeling it as such and avoid paying severance. Definitely not a coincidence that the investigation happened right before bonuses.

Lot of apologetics and I’m not sure if most are actually in banking anymore (either yet to join or left a while back). Seamless tricks are tried and simple - Order early (and stay back or leave) - Combine other people account, especially on weekends and order beyond your limit - Order groceries - Order apples then call in beer - Order and pick up at restaurant and go home - Order from home, call restaurant and have them deliver to your home

Some offenses are visually bigger than others, but what are you going to do if you are compliance / management? Sit every analyst down, go through every line and try to pick right and wrong? Someone will always be unhappy with what’s fair.

In most cases, single offense is small ($30) but when someone does it says twice a week whole year it’s $3,000. You do it across 100 analysts and associates, it’s 300K.

Still not huge numbers, but most times the code you use is tied back to a client project. So when deal closes and you send client the expense report - the fear (and sometimes reality) is that client says why is James charging $120 to dinner when he isn’t on deal or why Arthur spends $90 for lunch on weekends. It’s a reputational risk even before it hits WSJ. As we all know there are strict rules in place (eg cant spend more than $100 deal toys / client gifts) - so it does matter.

For company likes WF, once the cat is out of the bag, with all the headline issues - you just can’t hide it. Everyone does it didn’t work for the retail guys opening fake accounts either. Once it went beyond the group and had compliance, HR, management involved - heads going to roll. We don’t sympathesize with bank tellers who probably need the money more than whoever lost bonus - but that’s the reality of it. Several other banks have gone through the Seamless / Taxi violations recently and firing people have been rare, but has happened. Most cases it was wrist slap / impact on review or bonus. But not everyone had PR issues like WF.

I also don’t buy some senior people in the group leaving. When these kind of issues come up, senior people wash their hand off right away and leave it to HR. They were probably jumping to competition anyway and said it to someone. But let me know if the team doesn’t have some sweet guaranteed contract.

For rest of the crowd? Most BBs have tightened the rules and it’s getting harder to go around. For banks that haven’t - just be careful. Eventually (especially when recession gets closer) both bank and client will look closer at expenses - it’ll get more scrutiny. So will once your bank gets in trouble for something unrelated (WF retail is a good example, could be asset management people taking client out somewhere else).

Why me, everyone used to do it really doesn’t fly.