Wells Fargo
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OVERALL |
|
Owned |
USA |
Rating |
N/A |
Banking and financial services
One of USA's Big 4 banks.
Wells Fargo & Company | USA | website |
Company Assessment
PRAISE | CRITICISM | INFORMATION | ||
Wells Fargo & Company | ||||
This company is listed on the EPA Green Power Partnership website (USA) as using renewable energy for 108% of its organisation-wide electricity use in the USA.
Source: EPA (2023)
In 2020, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) asked companies to provide data about their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change risk. Responding companies are scored across four key areas: disclosure; awareness; management; and leadership. This company received a CDP Climate Change Score of A-.
Source: CDP (2020)
This company is listed as having best practice on a report card on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality in corporate America.
Source: Human Rights Campaign (2021) |
In 2015 the Fair Finance Guide ranked the top financiers of selected fossil fuels companies (loans & underwriting) and compared it to their financing of renewable energy. This bank appeared 20th in the list of top 25 fossil fuel funders, after providing US$20.6 billion for fossil fuels and only US$0.8 billion for renewable energy between 2009 and 2014.
Source: Fair Finance (2015)
The 2021 report "Banking on Climate Chaos" analyses the world's 60 largest banks and their financing of tar sands oil, Arctic oil, offshore oil and gas, LNG, coal mining, and coal-fired power between 2016 and 2020. This bank invested US$223.3 billion between 2016 and 2020, making it the world's 3rd worst fossil fuel funder.
Source: RAN (2021)
Forest 500 identifies the 350 companies and 150 financial institutions with the greatest exposure to tropical deforestation risk, and annually assesses them on the strength and implementation of their deforestation and human rights commitments. This financial institution received a score of 5%.
Source: Forest 500 (2022)
In Dec 2022, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ordered Wells Fargo Bank to pay US$3.7 billion in compensation and penalties for charging illegal fees and interest on auto and mortgage loans. The CFPB stated that it identified multiple violations of the law in regards to Wells Fargo's auto loan servicing. According to the order, the bank incorrectly applied loan payments, "erroneously imposed certain fees and charges," incorrectly repossessed customers' vehicles and failed to refund certain unearned fees of debt cancellation products.
Source: Top Class Actions (2022)
This company appeared on Global Exchange's list of "10 Top Corporate Criminals of 2017" for financing environmentally and socially detrimental projects and for creating millions of fraudulent customer accounts to increase profits.
Source: Global Exchange (2017)
The 2018 update of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons' (ICAN) global report, "Don't Bank on the Bomb" showed that 329 financial institutions from around the world invested into 20 companies involved in the production, maintenance and modernization of nuclear weapons. Since 2014 this financial institution invested over US$13 billion into 14 of the 20 nuclear weapons producers named in the report.
Source: ICAN (2018)
Portfolio Earth's 2020 report, "Bankrolling Extinction" outlines the banking sector's role in the global biodiversity crisis. In 2019, the world's largest banks invested more than USD 2.6 trillion in sectors which governments and scientists agree are the primary drivers of biodiversity destruction. This bank is the world's fifth largest provider of loans and underwriting linked to direct and indirect biodiversity impact risks.
Source: Portfolio Earth (2020)
This bank is the world's 28th largest provider of loans and underwriting for single-use plastic polymer production, according to Minderoo Foundation's 2021 Plastic Waste Makers Index. Institutional asset managers and global banks are providing billions of dollars to companies that produce polymers from fossil fuels, as much as 100 times more than they provide to companies trying to shift to a circular economy. Plastic pollution is one of the biggest, most urgent threats facing our planet and our health.
Source: Minderoo Foundation (2021)
In 2021 this company agreed to pay US$28 million to settle a class action lawsuit that claimed that telemarketers working on behalf of Wells Fargo Bank secretly made call recordings without consent.
Source: Top Class Actions (2021)
In 2023 Wells Fargo agreed to pay US$94 million to settle a class action lawsuit that claimed the bank put the mortgages of borrowers struggling during the pandemic into forbearance without their consent, hurting their credit scores.
Source: Top Class Actions (2023)
This company is on OpenSecrets.org's list of "Top Donors", a list of the 100 biggest givers in US federal-level politics since 1990. Companies on this list lobby and spend big, with large sums sent to candidates, parties and leadership PACs. This company comes in at number 87 on the list, with contributions totalling $33,057,328 between 1990 and 2020.
Source: Open Secrets (2020)
In 2022 the median pay for a worker at this company was US$75,979. The CEO was paid 324 times this amount. Exorbitant CEO pay is a major contributor to rising inequality. CEOs are getting more because of their power to set pay, not because they are increasing productivity or possess specific, high-demand skills. The economy would suffer no harm if CEOs were paid less (or taxed more). In contrast, the CEO-to-typical-worker compensation ratio was 20-to-1 in 1965 and 58-to-1 in 1989.
Source: AFL-CIO (2023)
This company received an S&P Global ESG Score of 33/100 in the Banks category of the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment, an annual evaluation of companies' sustainability practices (last updated 18 Nov 2022). The rankings are based on an analysis of corporate economic, environmental and social performance, assessing issues such as corporate governance, risk management, environmental reporting, climate strategy, human rights and labour practices.
Source: S&P Global (2022)
JUST Capital polls Americans every year to identify the issues that matter most in defining just business behaviour. For their 2024 rankings the public identified 20 issues, which are organised under the headings Workers, Communities, Customers, Shareholders and Environment. JUST Capital then define metrics that map to those issues and track and analyse the largest, publicly traded U.S. companies. This analysis powers their rankings, in which this company ranked 697th of 937 companies, and 29th of 35 Banks.
Source: JUST Capital (2024)
The 2022 Financial System Benchmark ranks 400 financial institutions across three measurement areas: governance and strategy, respecting planetary boundaries (environment, climate and biodiversity) and adhering to societal conventions (human rights). This company ranked #100/400, with a total score of 19.8/100.
Source: World Benchmarking Alliance (2022) |
This Nov 2011 report by a group of NGOs examines the financing of 31 major coal-mining companies and 40 producers of coal-fired electricity by 93 banks since 2005, the year the Kyoto Protocol came into force. This bank appears nineteenth on their list of 'Top Twenty Climate Killer Banks'. The NGOs are calling on the banks to shift their portfolios to renewables and energy efficiency and set and implement ambitious CO2 reduction goals for their financed emissions. [Listed under Information due to age of report]
Source: Banktrack (2011)
As documented by the Project of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), this company is involved in the USA prison industry. Has been one of the main financial backers of private prisons and immigrant detention companies. In 2019 it announced it would stop providing loans to these companies.
Source: AFSC (2021)
This bank appeared at #10 in a list of banks backing expansion in the tar sands. They have loaned US$2.2 billion to companies operating in the Canadian tar sands since 2007, according to Bloomberg. Extracting oil from tar sands produces between 3 and 5 times the greenhouse gas pollution of conventional oil production, pollutes water, destroys forests, and uses huge amounts of energy to process. [Listed under Information due to age of report]
Source: RAN (2010)
This company received a score of 30.3/100 in the Newsweek Green Ranking 2017, which ranks the world's largest publicly traded companies on eight indicators covering energy, greenhouse gases, water, waste, fines and penalties, linking executive pay to sustainability targets, board-level committee oversight of environmental issues and third-party audits. Ranking methodology by Corporate Knights and HIP Investor.
Source: Newsweek (2017)
As You Sow's 2023 report, 'The 100 Most Overpaid CEOs', reveals the 100 most overpaid CEOs from USA's 500 largest public companies (as determined by the S&P 500 list). This company's CEO, Charles W. Scharf came in at number 45 on the list, having been paid US$21,350,906 in 2022. According to the report, "Most CEOs have come to be grossly overpaid, and that overpayment is harmful to the companies, the shareholders, the customers, the other employees, the economy, and society as a whole."
Source: As You Sow (2023)
As listed on the We Mean Business website, this company has committed to the following climate action initiatives: commit to 100% renewable power.
Source: We Mean Business (2021)
This company appears on the 2021 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index, signifying a commitment to supporting gender equality through policy development, representation, and transparency.
Source: Bloomberg (2021)
The Equator Principles (EPs) are a set of guidelines, based upon the Performance Standards and guidelines from the IFC, the World Bank's private sector lending arm for private banks to assess and mitigate risks in project finance. Banks use the Principles to guide internal operating procedures for transaction for specific projects. Although the EPs are an important step to raise overall standards of financiers and projects in the developing world, they currently fall short on transparency and governance requirements.
Source: Equator Principles (2018)
OpenSecrets.org tracks the influence of money on U.S. politics, and how that money affects policy and citizens' lives. Follow link to see this company's record of political donations, lobbying, outside spending and more.
Source: Open Secrets (2020)
BankTrack is a global network of civil society organisations and individuals tracking the operations of the banking sector and the activities they finance. BankTrack aims to promote fundamental changes in the banking sector so that banks adopt just and sustainable business practices. Follow the link to see this bank's profile.
Source: BankTrack (2018)
The Corporate Research Project's Corporate Rap Sheets are dossiers summarising the most significant crimes, violations and other questionable activities of the world's largest and most controversial companies. Follow link to see this company's Corporate Rap Sheet.
Source: Corporate Research Project (2018) |
Company Details
Type | Public company |
Founded | 1852 |
Contact Details
Address | USA |
Website | www.wellsfargo.com |