Wells Fargo's recent criminal activity against its customers should be sending a message to people to seek new alternatives for their finances. Perhaps this is a cue for folks to finally take Blockchain technologies with Cryptocurrencies (like Bitcoin) a bit more serious.
In case you haven't heard here's a few snips from the NY Times:
For years, Wells Fargo employees secretly issued credit cards without a customer’s consent. They created fake email accounts to sign up customers for online banking services. They set up sham accounts that customers learned about only after they started accumulating fees.
On Thursday, these illegal banking practices cost Wells Fargo $185 million in fines, including a $100 million penalty from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the largest such penalty the agency has issued.
Federal banking regulators said the practices, which date back to 2011, reflected serious flaws in the internal culture and oversight at Wells Fargo, one of the nation’s largest banks. The bank has fired at least 5,300 employees who were involved.
... Continue reading here
This is not the first time Wells Fargo and it's associated banks have been caught in criminal activity...
From Bloomberg:
This was no isolated incident. Wachovia, it turns out, had made a habit of helping move money for Mexican drug smugglers. Wells Fargo & Co., which bought Wachovia in 2008, has admitted in court that its unit failed to monitor and report suspected money laundering by narcotics traffickers -- including the cash used to buy four planes that shipped a total of 22 tons of cocaine.
Obviously the bank has had a long enough period of time to learn how to run a proper bank. The bank should had learned from the lessons of the Great Depression;
On January 1, 1924, Wells Fargo Nevada National Bank merged with the Union Trust Company, founded in 1893 by I. W. Hellman, to form the Wells Fargo Bank & Union Trust Company.[36] The bank prospered during the 1920s and Lipman's careful reinvestment of the bank's earnings placed the bank in a good position to survive the Great Depression. Following the collapse of the banking system in 1933, the company was able to extend immediate and substantial help to its troubled correspondents. [ Source ]
Imagine what we don't know about what goes on with these banks? The only reason why we're talking about this now is because they've been busted. With something like Bitcoin these kinds of nefarious activities are less a problem because it's up to you to ensure the security of how you keep your money safe.
Even though a lot of people new to Bitcoin will go with someone like Coinbase which is a third party that acts like a bank it's not necessary. One of the many good things about Bitcoin is that you can hold/hide your cash never crossing another person's eyes giving them advantages like banks to do such criminal activity and ultimately damage a person's finances like what's happened here in this situation.
Other lessons we should point out is how these banks still continue the same practices going back to the Great Depression where when financial crisis occurs they prevent people being able to access their funds like in 2015 with Greece. Yet again this is another reason why something like Bitcoin would be better to have for a way to store and use money since banks have no access to your Bitcoin.
This article is not to suggest that there aren't problems with Cryptocurrencies as I've pointed out ponzi scams here, here and here as well as it's issues of not being able to buy a pizza at this point without giving away millions of dollars. However, even though Bitcoin (and other Cryptocoins) are not perfect - the direction of these problems with criminal banks does suggest that the future could be moving towards something like it since it is safer for individuals to hold their own money rather than trusting 3rd parties which is pretty exciting.