Sen. Elizabeth Warren calls Wells Fargo CEO ‘evasive,’ presses financial institution for fraud complaints on Zelle fee platform

Sen. Elizabeth Warren known as Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf “evasive,” saying the financial institution’s solutions to her questions on fraud throughout the Zelle fee platform had been deceptive, “insulting and ineffective.”

The Massachusetts Democrat, who sits on the Senate Banking, Housing and City Affairs Committee, stated the speed of Wells Fargo clients who reported fraud or scams on Zelle was greater than twice as excessive as different massive banks and a couple of.5 occasions increased in 2022 than in 2019 amongst Wells Fargo clients. She stated the financial institution “tried to mislead me” by offering restricted knowledge from 2018 and 2021.

“Your responses to the rest of my questions had been insulting and ineffective to your clients, who’ve been the victims of fraud and scams on Zelle and are unaware of the upper dangers they face on the platform as clients of your financial institution,” she wrote in a letter despatched Monday to Scharf.

Warren pressed the financial institution and Early Warning Companies, the mum or dad firm of cash switch platform Zelle, to launch extra knowledge on fraud and rip-off complaints reported by banking clients. Requests for remark from Wells Fargo and Early Warning Companies weren’t instantly returned.

She stated prior requests for particular knowledge compiled for an October evaluation of fraud and rip-off complaints by customers went unheeded.

“I’m disillusioned by your evasive and deceptive reply to my October 6, 2022 letter asking concerning the terribly excessive and quickly growing situations of fraud and scams affecting Wells Fargo clients on the Zelle cash switch platform,” Warren wrote. “Your clients – who’ve lately endured dozens of examples of lawbreaking and mistreatment by your financial institution – deserve higher.”

Warren’s report stated a number of massive banks, together with Wells Fargo, could have violated federal legislation by failing to refund a overwhelming majority of shoppers defrauded on Zelle. She discovered that the seven banks that personal Zelle and its mum or dad firm — Financial institution of America, Truist, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, PNC Financial institution, U.S. Financial institution and Wells Fargo — didn’t repay clients more often than not in 190,000 circumstances in 2021 and the primary half of 2022 the place customers stated they had been scammed on Zelle.

The quantity of the fraudulent funds reached $213 million, based on the report.

Wells Fargo was amongst a number of banks that refused to launch key fraud data, Warren stated, although the frequency of Zelle fraud and rip-off stories by the financial institution’s clients was “greater than twice as excessive because it was for comparable banks for which we had knowledge,” based on the letter.

Jim Seitz, a spokesman for Wells Fargo, advised CNBC in October that Warren’s evaluation is “deceptive and inaccurate.”

“We welcome the chance to have a constructive dialogue about wholistic Zelle knowledge and trade tendencies — not simply that of three banks,” Seitz stated.

Early Warning Companies additionally defended Wells Fargo in its response to the outcomes of Warren’s Oct. three report, saying that “latest statements relating to Wells Fargo’s fraud and rip-off charges are inaccurate. Wells Fargo’s charges of reported fraud and scams are terribly low and corresponding to the Zelle Community as a complete, the place charges of reported fraud and scams signify lower than 0.1% of all transactions,” based on the letter.

The corporate additionally advised CNBC in October that “any exterior evaluation carried out is incomplete and doesn’t replicate the efforts and knowledge reported by greater than 1,700 monetary establishments on the Zelle Community.”

The senator known as Early Warning Companies’ response “inaccurate” and stated it’s “not according to the info offered to me by Wells Fargo and different banks which can be a part of the Zelle community,” based on the letter.

Warren additionally stated the reply she acquired from Wells Fargo was “wholly insufficient given the scope of the issues.”

“For instance, you said that knowledge we printed on Zelle-related issues at Wells Fargo and different banks contained ‘apples-to-oranges comparisons,’ as a result of Wells Fargo’s ‘response to your knowledge request included gross claims [and] … [o]ther responses could have used completely different dimensions,'” Warren wrote. “However this assertion, which is an try to reduce the impression of the issue at Wells Fargo, is fake.”

Warren requested the financial institution for up-to-date data on the extent of fraud scams reported by clients, reimbursement charges and the greenback worth of reimbursements to scammed clients, she says, for the fifth time. The up to date knowledge will cowl 2017 to 2021 and this January by means of September.

The senator requested Early Warning Companies for related data, along with the variety of circumstances the place Zelle referred scams to legislation enforcement or to federal or state financial institution regulators, spanning every of the final 5 full calendar years, and from Jan. 1 to the current. Warren gave every firm a deadline of Nov. 21.

“If Wells Fargo and EWS actually wish to set the document straight about fraud and scams on Zelle, then they need to change course and supply the American individuals with full knowledge,” Warren stated in a press release. “Prospects who had been defrauded and scammed on Zelle deserve full transparency.”

In October, Warren appealed to the Shopper Monetary Safety Bureau to make use of its rule-making authorities underneath the Dodd-Frank Act to extend shopper protections on peer-to-peer cash switch platforms.