Have Banks Learned Nothing

First there was the scandal at Wells Fargo. Employees felt so much pressure to make sales targets that in the end they set up millions of fake accounts. Wells Fargo ended up firing over 5,000 employees. There is a story about this on CNN.

You have to wonder how much of the fault should be placed on these employees. Yes, it was the wrong thing to do, but it seems like they felt they had no choice. It seems that they felt they were between a rock and a hard place. I have some sympathy for them. I do not have much sympathy for the CEO John Stumpf and I am glad that he had to resign.

Now we are having similar problems at our Canadian Banks. There is a similar type of story about TD Bank on CBC. Do the people that run our banks not listen to the news? Did they learn nothing from the Wells Fargo scandal? The market seems to recognize the problem with the recent drop in TD Bank's stock.

Losing a job is serious business for employees. For TD Bank to say that they have a code of ethics for employees to follow does not help employees. Large organizations need whistle blowers. Employees need an ombudsman that they can talk to without retribution. This is how you solve such problems and do not development problems in the future.

There are different opinions. Matt Smith of Motley Fool thinks investors should ignore the scandal and buy this stock because of the dip. He does not think it will do long term harm to the bank. There are different views even on Motley Fool where in a recent post Ryan Goldsman says that the stock has not declined enough for it to be a buy. You might also be interested in this blog entry by Million Dollar Journey about how to deal with banks.

On my other blog I wrote yesterday about AltaGas Ltd (TSX-ALA, OTC-ATGFF)... learn more. Tomorrow, I will write about Melcor Developments Inc. (TSX-MRD, OTC-MODVF)... learn more on Friday, March 24, 2017 around 5 pm.

Also, on my book blog I have put a review of the book Russia by Martin Sixsmith learn more...

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