*By Bridgette Webb*
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) wants regulators to exert serious pressure on Wells Fargo ー pressure she hopes will result in the resignation of CEO Tim Sloan. But it's unclear whether the Senator's coaxing will have any real effect, said Pete Schroeder, a financial correspondent at Reuters.
"On paper, Warren can't make the Fed do anything," Schroeder said Friday in an interview on Cheddar.
The central bank is an independent regulator and technically can't make Wells Fargo ($WFC) do anything either, he pointed out. And the board "so far has been supportive of Tim Sloan."
"What's interesting with this new letter is that Warren is trying to enlist the Fed in her effort. Her argument is that you can't overhaul the bank's policies and keep Tim Sloan, who has been at the bank for 30 years," Schroeder said.
Wells first came under fire in 2016 when news surfaced that employees secretly created millions of unauthorized bank and credit card accounts without customers' knowledge. The phony accounts charged customers with unjustified fees and allowed Wells employees to boost their sales figures and earn more in commissions.
The massive scandal resulted in the ouster of then-CEO John Stumpf and the promotion of Sloan, who was the bank's president at the time. He'd also previously served as chief operating officer and CFO.
But under his leadership, issues have continued to rock the bank, including the news that it improperly repossessed military service members’ cars.
In a letter to the Federal Reserve on Thursday, Warren argued that Sloan is profoundly implicated in the bank's misconduct.
"\[She's\] really putting a lot of pressure on the bank and really pushing for \[it\] to really overhaul the organization, basically saying it's clear that they are not running the bank in anything close to an appropriate fashion."
According to Schroeder, "Warren has been on the bank from the first scandal."
In February, the Fed made the unprecedented move of ordering Wells Fargo to keep its assets below $2 trillion, saying the company had prioritized growth over compliance with regulation. Warren wants to keep that cap on business in place until Sloan is essentially forced to resign.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/why-sen-warren-cant-force-the-fed-to-remove-wells-fargo-ceo).
As President Biden travels to Europe this week amid Russia's ongoing invasion of its neighbor Ukraine, former Obama campaign foreign policy advisor and former Bush administration State Department official David Tafuri, joined Cheddar News to discuss the president's stop in Brussels, Belgium, to coordinate with NATO leaders efforts to dissuade Russian President Putin's war. "The maintenance of sanctions and increasingly ratcheting up the sanctions is what he thinks will cause a country like Russia to back off," Tafuri said of Biden. "And so he's committed to that strategy."
John Logan, Director of Labor and Employment Studies at San Francisco State University, joined Cheddar News to discuss the growing unionization push by employees at Starbucks and Amazon, and the wider implications of employee organization at these big companies.
Cheddar's Arielle Hixson sat down with five Black women making history as part of the Biden administration's communications team. Karine Jean-Pierre, the principal deputy press secretary; Khanya Brann, the chief of staff to Kate Bedingfield; Amanda Finney, the chief of staff to Jen Psaki; Erica Loewe, the director of African American media; and Rykia Dorsey, the senior regional communications director, shared their stories.
President Biden has embarked on a crucial trip to meet with allies in Belgium and Poland to discuss new sanctions on Russia as it continues to wage war on Ukraine. The president will seek to address the growing humanitarian crisis out of Ukraine, demonstrate a united Western front against Russia, and reassure Ukraine that it has support from the U.S. Joel Rubin, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State & President of the Washington Strategy Group, breaks down what to expect from the President's crucial visit to Europe.
Catching you up on what you need to know Mar 24, 2022, with NATO meeting updates, Ukraine retaking suburbs around Kyiv, the spread of omicron subvariant BA.2 in China, Google Pay launching a third-party billing option, and a 16-year-old is suspected of being the Lapsus$ mastermind behind hacks of Microsoft and others.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week fell to its lowest level in 52 years as the U.S. job market continues to show strength in the midst of rising costs and an ongoing virus pandemic.
Alicia Garza joined Cheddar News to talk about the Black Futures Lab where serves as founder and principal. The non-profit organization seeks to develop grassroots power in the Black community with projects like the Black Census, which takes into account the granular experiences of the demographic. "What we know about Black folks and the reason that we decided to focus on black communities again, it's because we're being left out and left behind their stories being told about us without our input and without our shaping," she said. "If we want a robust democracy in this country, we have to change that equation." Garza also touched on issues around voter suppression and the midterm elections.
Sean O'Hara, President of Pacer ETF's, explains why investors who were down after Jerome Powell's remarks on inflation Monday were more optimistic on Tuesday as the major indexes ended the day near session highs.
