With Venmo being one of the most popular ways to send money, it makes sense to wonder what’s keeping your personal data and digital wallet safe. Venmo has made strides to improve its security in the past two years, but here’s the short answer to how safe Venmo is—protecting yourself comes almost entirely down to you. How to Keep Your Personal Info Safe on Venmo It takes only five minutes to make your Venmo account […]
The Wells Fargo sales scandal will cost chairman and chief executive John Stumpf $41 million and former community banking supervisor Carrie Tolstedt $19 million, as per a decision made by the bank’s board announced on Tuesday. The money will come from the executives’ unvested equity awards through a clawback process. For Stumpf, the $41 million is about 25% of the compensation he received during his 35 years at the bank, the Wall Street Journal said; he […]
A group of senators just spent about an hour and a half grilling John Stumpf, the CEO and chairman of Wells Fargo, about 2 million unauthorized accounts that were opened under his watch and how Wells Fargo was going to make it up to customers. Stumpf’s answers to many of those questions was some variation of, “We’re working on it” and “Let me get back to you on that.” It’s perhaps unsurprising that the members of the […]
Thousands of Wells Fargo bank employees seeking sales bonuses participated in a scheme that led to the opening of roughly 2 million unauthorized accounts, federal regulators said Thursday. For failing to monitor an incentive program that spun out of control, leading to “widespread” abuse of consumers’ information, Well Fargo must now pay the biggest-ever penalty levied by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the agency said. At the root of the scheme was a program […]
There are lots of good reasons to follow companies on social media — to gain insight into the brand’s priorities, learn about deals, seek inspiration, get behind-the-scenes looks, berate them for bad customer service, and so on. But who you follow on social media isn’t always private, and there are people out there who will use who you follow to try and steal your money. A new report from ZeroFOX, a security technology company, suggests […]
The fine print may be small, but it’s about to be the subject of a very large fight that will impact virtually every American consumer. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Wednesday it will propose a ban on arbitration clauses that prevent consumers from participating in class-action lawsuits, a move likely to generate the consumer watchdog’s biggest fight to date. Corporations with an eye towards streamlining disputes with customers have for years included mandatory arbitration […]
According to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, it’s illegal to robocall a mobile phone number without permission. The American Bankers Association wants to change that, arguing that robocalls will help fight identity theft and other kinds of fraud. Opponents say that’s an overreach, one that will erode an important consumer protection. “Gee, I can’t talk right now. Why don’t you give me your home number and I’ll call you later.” That’s how Jerry Seinfeld memorably […]
For many people like me, starting your own business is the embodiment of the American dream — you get to be your own boss, build something from the ground up and revel in its success. But for some budding entrepreneurs in several states their small businesses have become big financial nightmares — and not because of the economy. Rather, the federal government has forced them to go cash-only in an electronic economy despite the fact […]
Last week offered a very good snapshot of the state of things in the wake of mortgage crisis. On the one hand, there was news of a woefully inadequate $8.5 billion settlement as “remedy” for irresponsible (and worse) behavior by mortgage servicers. On the other, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced regulations that might help stop such abuses from happening again. The two news items underscore the marked difference between a government agency that stands […]
The word “economy” comes from the Greek “oikos” or “house.” Lately, the global economy has been like a nightmare episode of “Holmes Inspection.” You know the one. The owner fixes one problem only to find a more insidious problem underneath. Confidence in the contractor quickly turns into fear of the unknown and soon a new floor turns into a new foundation. It all goes way over budget and none of it is to code. It’s […]
