Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is the largest shareholder in Wells Fargo. He spoke publicly for the first time since the bank's fake account scandal, telling CNN's Poppy Harlow he has faith in the bank and hasn't sold any shares.
you mean a company? all companies have the incentive to make money. banks just have the upperhand because they can influence laws and pay billions of dollars in fines without batting an eye.
Wells Fargo was involved with the mortgage crisis and also received a bail out (TARP funds) at taxpayers expense, also laughably a major investor in for profit prisons- like the GEO group, so interesting how the prison industry is big industry here, wonder if any Wells Fargo employees will be in those private prisons (which use tax payers money you know). I know the CEO won't be there of course !
***** Also the greedy party elite, dictators etc- OK , none of the greedy power hungry have any souls , it's not just the Capitalists . Putin's pals do very well.
True Financier. Brilliant man and we are lucky he shares these insights. Most billionaires don't care, he cares and wants folks to understand. He treats the public like he treats stockholders with respect. Not saying he's a saint, but he's transparent.
Puhlease ! He justs cares about his investments which is why he's soft soaping the Wells Fargo latest scandal - they have plenty of past ones, their for profit prison thing (GEO group), mortgage scandal and bail out at tax payers expense, he's just worried about his sucky investments losing value and nothing more sucker.
He treats the public like the stupid sheep they are. That's why he endorsed Hillary. He knew he could get his oil train subsidies and claim to support "poor people" at the same time. Oh, too bad Buffett, now we're gonna have the pipeline, and guess what, your oil train business is gonna take a hit. Liberals should love Trump. They love to hate oil trains, the pipeline will create millions of jobs both directly and indirectly and is safer for the environment than the rail transport of crude. Trump is going to make America great again!
They are still doing sneaky shit. I’m a business owner and have always gotten change (coins) at WF and right after this mess they started charging people to exchange coins. Called the company and they say it might be a mistake... call the branch that charged me and they say they’ve started charging because their tellers was not informed of the fees till now (5 years they weren’t informed). Cut the crap, I’ll take my business elsewhere. They charged my personal account miscellaneous fees 2 times since I’ve been with them and had to call in to get them removed; funny thing is they told me they didn’t even know what the fees where for and said it must of been a mistake. Mistake my ass, I never seen you deposit more money into my account because of a “mistake”.
It’s a real charge. U have just been lucky enough to get tellers that didn’t charge u when they should have been. So when u would get a teller that actually did what they were supposed to do and charge you for the change order, it seemed like that was the teller doing something wrong. When actually it was the tellers that weren’t charging you for the change orders that were doing things wrong. The amount of the charge depended how much change u were getting so it could vary. There is a change order fee for smaller businesses because the bank needs to order more currency/coins to accommodate those change orders that the local businesses in thee area would need instead of just ordering enough money for the daily cash flow. The bank has to pay brinks and Lumis for the extra currency/coin so that’s why there is a fee for it. If a business owner ordered their currency/coin through lumis or brinks directly it would be a hell of a lot more expensive (that’s why they don’t) then the couple dollar fee for a change order from the bank. Not defending either side. But that’s the reason for it.
Wells Fargo tried not to pay me my incentive bonus for opening up a new account but I stuck to them and they finally paid, although they did not admit any wrongdoing. Dishonest crooks!
I can understand why you say that. Although look at some credit union issues that have happened in some countries, look up credit unions Ireland as an example.
Some of these questions, I completely understand. I was and am disgusted by the banking industries exploitative behavior. However I think people fail to realize how rampant certain behavior is in corporate America. The CEO leaving with a ton of money while people lose their jobs is despicable. But if you're going to be an activist and stand up or boycott a company entirely in the future because of that behavior, you aren't going to be an investor. You need to do what you can to fix things but unless you are running the company you can't directly do that. Unless you see the behavior fundamentally changing the business model it may still be a good investment and thats what he does.
He's saying the incentive program was designed in such a way that it would promote the fraud in lower-level employees. The incentive program in of itself was not fraudulent but rather the methods used to achieve the rewards by lower-level employees. the incentive program was merely a mistake on the part higher level management and the CEO. how much of that is exactly true I am not sure but I do appreciate the distinction between fraud and a higher level employee simply instituting an incentive program that is not well thought-out.
The reporter appears to have done her homework before the interview. But, I wish she'd delved more into the 5,300 employee firings more e.g. would Buffet have made the same decision to fire them?
In the modern left/right echo chambers, it's so easy to repeat what you've been told to think (and there's certainly plenty of evidence of both sides of that foreslash here), but the real understanding lies with making an attempt to understand where the overlaps are. This guy gets both sides. On one side, he's at heart a Midwestern workaday guy from Omaha: on the other hand, he's a high-roller with billions at his disposal. If ever there was a Zeitgeist for the time we're living in, this guy is the one.
I went in to my local WF bank, and deposited $40. I really could not afford it, but I wanted to help them out. Then a 2 mo. Later I finally got a statement. $0.00 balance! I looked at statement and saw my deposit was taken by FEES! I went there to ask about this and did not get straight answers. No one knew why!Really,not even A young mamager. A nice teller gave me my money back. Tell Warren about this and the fees. Thanks.
This bank did not make a "terrible mistake." Its leaders intentionally ordered staff members to defraud people for as long as they could get away with it. This same type of thing continues to happen at banks in Canada, and our government is aware of it. But nothing is being done about it here. I applaud all the USA employees who bravely blew the whistle on Wells Fargo. Unfortunately, in Canada, we have lax whistleblower laws to protect honest citizens who come forward with stories like these.
A mistake is something done without clear intention. What Wells Fargo did was both intentional, and to benefit their supervisors. Making excuses for what they did is a mistake.
I'm going to assume that you, Poppy, have a list of questions you are determined to ask--but why ask a question that he just answered? Do you not listen to the people you are interviewing? I do think you tried, but I really just wanted to reach through the screen and shake you--he just answered that!!!
No shit he didn't sell his shares. No long term investor is going to sell shares of such a massive institution, especially a bank, for a scandal. Banks are almost impossible to topple. He knows its too big to fail. That is his "insurance."
You can either make a shit load of money with buffett or you can have dignity. He couldn't give two shits about what Wells Fargo did as long as he is not losing money.
Can you imagine sending a CEO who caused this big a problem away with 130m as a parting gift. As if he'd done right by the business. He should be going to fucking prison not to buy another yacht.
What Mr. Buffett didn't tell you is that he owns the conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway, which is Wells Fargo's largest shareholder. You think he has a vested interest in spinning a glowing picture of Wells Fargo so his shares of stock doesn't turn into a worthless pile of dust?
“A terrible mistake” was not plural. Buffet defending those involved should have this interview again because Wells Fargo is still up to no good. They don’t care. Bankers talk about means to money like people’s lives are just a play thing. Oops mistake! A mistake is totally different than a culture of deceiving their customers and using their SS numbers to create false accounts. The executives involved that merely resigned should be in jail. They are not above the law.
Love Warrren but there is a lot of “we’re just passive investors” of Wells Fargo then in the next breath he says he is having conversations with both CEOs of Wells Fargo. Admire his honesty but doesn’t look good in this interview.
Credit cards are another exploitation , cheaper to go to a loan shark credit cards are 30% 35$ over limit fees, $35. passed due fee, they need to shut down these banks and close down the collection agency. The student loans is the worst exploition. I think the rich can make their own banks and the big banks need to let them fold. Small banks are better for the normal person.
Thank you, Mr Buffett (she shouldn't have called him Warren). As well, she was remiss in repeatedly attempting to get a Wells Fargo denigration out of Mr Buffett. Fortunately he's quite used to such silly interrogators.
I was scammed and cheated by Wells Fargo in a completely different way, the common problem is that they politely make excuses, deny responsibility, and will not get any resolution from or with the bank company even if you file complaints or attempt to use the mediation process, because their people or people who are paid by Wells Fargo make the decisions and excuses. And so you have to waste time and more money with lawyers and the legal system or connect with political authority 🤔 (please connect me with the people who can help) Which makes me wonder if some of the people going crazy are dealing with similar people and problems 🤔 😕 🙄
But what is happening lately, people have been hacking wells fay account , one of my friend that is an hacker just debited 15,000$ from someones account
So, you are saying that you are the largest single investor of the Wells Fargo bank, had a personal relationship with the CEO, 'a great man' you said, but was only made aware of the fraud while reading the morning paper? Well, perhaps it's high time to go take a nap, Mr Buffet!
Are you kidding me? Buffet has it all wrong, their comp plan was garbage, people didn't care about the max $1200 Platinum payout per quarter, they were worried about keeping a job and having health insurance.
They should have lost their license to operate ,This bank still retaining deposits from people to make them big problems with companies, should be put out of business. Lying to their customers is unacceptable and if I had an account there I would close it immediately., Peope make deposit and this bank retains the money.
Them,the stupid people can do that easily. But as you can see some of them zombies are trying to HELP(!!!!) the mafia. Btw/ Wells Fargo is NOT a bank! They are security brokerage illegally using Bank logo and stamp. Also, securitization is UNLAWFUL!!
Bla bla bla! When you go from location to location and you see the same practices and managers that tell you to "BS your way to the top" ???? Something is not right. And even if you say something, "nobody cares and nobody listens"
Buffet is acting in a completely selfish, self-serving manner. And that's what he's done all his life. Ignore the folksy stuff; he's a hard nosed one-man hedge fund.
Robert Albino sounds like you don’t know anything about the man. Hes one of the biggest philanthropists on Earth along with Bill Gates who you likely think is selfish too.
