Wells Fargo stock was slightly down as Monday reports by the Wall Street Journal disclosed that Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), and others held advanced talks to refund their customers and each other.  

The initiative is the result of a rise in money-transfer network usage during the pandemic, which drew con artists. About 1.8 billion transactions totaling $490 billion were handled by Zelle in 2021.

As a result, lawmakers and regulators have paid attention. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) lambasted Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) CEO Charlie Scharf in a letter, accusing him of being evasive and dishonest regarding fraud on the Zelle platform. According to her, the corporation does not disclose enough information on how frequently it reimburses its consumers who have been cheated or defrauded on Zelle

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is also drafting new recommendations to encourage banks to compensate more clients who fell for fraud on Zelle and other money-transfer platforms, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

Banks must reimburse clients for payments they didn’t authorize, but this doesn’t apply to customers who sent money after being duped. Scammers have recently used Zelle consumers’ willingness to send money to their advantage by impersonating bank customer service representatives.

Capital One Financial, PNC Financial Services, Truist Financial, and U.S. Bancorp are the other banks that make up the consortium of institutions that hold Zelle (NYSE:USB). The company that runs Zelle maintains that less than 0.1% of transactions on the system are fraudulent or scams.

Although some banks already reimburse clients who lost money due to fraud on the network, the larger plan would standardize the practice across all institutions that take part in the network, according to the WSJ. Customers can access the network through more than 1,800 banking institutions.

Developments, Wells Fargo stock 

The CFPB is reportedly suing Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) for more than $1 billion to resolve a number of probes into the bank’s alleged mistreatment of clients. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) are working together on a 12-week digital dollar pilot program.

CoinDesk, a news site that focuses on cryptocurrencies and digital assets, says that nine banks are taking part in the New York Fed’s experiment. The experiment looks at how digital tokens that represent digital dollars can be used to improve how central bank money is settled between institutions. Wells Fargo stock was trading at $47.09 as of 01:09 PM EST.

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