Cases Not Closed: Wells Fargo and Silicon Valley Bank in Legal Crosshairs

Wells Fargo & Co. earned $19.7 billion in 2024, “a year of significant progress,” its CEO proclaimed. Silicon Valley Bank failed nearly two years ago, stoking fears of a systemic financial crisis. Both institutions remain under the clouds of regulatory discipline.

On January 14, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced enforcement actions against three former Wells Fargo Bank executives stemming from “systemic and widespread sales practices misconduct” in and before 2016. Claudia Russ Anderson, chief risk officer of the community banking unit that was the fake-account-opening scandal’s epicenter, was assessed $10 million, chief auditor David Julian $7 million, and executive audit director Paul McLinko $1.5 million.

The three were included in a January 2020 notice of charges, but resolution was delayed as they went into administrative litigation. Eight others had settled with the OCC for $43.2 million in combined civil money penalties along with prohibition or cease-and-desist orders. Accounting for the bulk of that amount were ex-Wells Fargo chairman and CEO John Stumpf and community bank chief Carrie...