Public Meeting Regarding Norwest Corporation and Wells Fargo & Company
Thursday, September 17, 1998
Transcript of Panel Three
64
1 CHAIRPERSON SMITH: Thank you. Any 10:19:16
2 questions? If not, we had tentatively scheduled a 10:19:18
3 break, but if we have the witnesses for the next 10:19:20
4 panel, then I'd like to go forward with Panel No. 3. 10:19:26
5 We're going to start with Ms. Erickson. 10:20:48
6
7 MS. ERICKSON: Thank you. I appreciate 10:20:54
8 the opportunity to speak with you today. I think 10:20:54
9 it's unfortunate that the meeting is only a daytime 10:20:58
10 meeting. We do have an awful lot of low income 10:21:02
11 people who are affected by banking activities and 10:21:04
12 mergers such as this. It would have been nice if we 10:21:08
13 could have had potentially more participation from 10:21:12
14 them with later hours. 10:21:14
15 This merger will create the seventh largest 10:21:18
16 bank in the country. They will have banking 10:21:22
17 operations in 21 states, and yet this is the only 10:21:24
18 hearing. I frankly wonder, where are the anti-trust 10:21:30
19 forces in this? I see a terrible, terrible trend in 10:21:34
20 this country of mergers in the consolidation of 10:21:38
21 power over all sorts of very basic needs for people, 10:21:42
22 banking being only one of them. Medicine, food, 10:21:46
23 communications, everything is becoming very 10:21:48
24 consolidated and it's to the detriment of the 10:21:52
25 people. 10:21:54
65
1 We have a number of members who are not able to 10:21:56
2 be with us here today, representatives from Chicago, 10:21:58
3 from Denver, Colorado, our national president Maude 10:22:02
4 Hearn, from Boston. The airline pilots' strike has 10:22:10
5 prevented their making it here; however, I would 10:22:14
6 like to say that we support the airline pilots' 10:22:16
7 strike in their principles of having their 10:22:20
8 concessions made back and compensated for now that 10:22:22
9 the company is thriving. 10:22:26
10 Mega-mergers destroy competition and foster 10:22:28
11 collusion and price fixing in an endless spiral 10:22:30
12 upwards. This is great for greedy shareholders 10:22:32
13 salivating over stock market gains. Their gains are 10:22:38
14 consumers' losses. Is this rewardable behavior? 10:22:40
15 Someone mentioned earlier competitive fees. 10:22:46
16 That's kind of an odd phrase, I think. What is a 10:22:50
17 competitive fee? Now to me as a consumer, a person 10:22:52
18 who has to pay fees, I think a competitive fee is a 10:22:56
19 low fee, and when a bounced check costs $2.68 for 10:23:00
20 the bank, I think a competitive fee for bounced 10:23:06
21 checks would be five bucks -- that's a hundred 10:23:08
22 percent almost profit -- but the bounced check fees 10:23:10
23 keep going up and up. What's this competitive 10:23:16
24 market for, is it consumers or is it shareholders? 10:23:20
25 Who profits from these activities? 10:23:24
66
1 The Federal Reserve has a responsibility to 10:23:26
2 protect the American people, to stop the unchecked 10:23:30
3 and unconditional urge to merge. While HR-10 is 10:23:32
4 giving banks the freedom to diversify and therefore 10:23:38
5 control even more of our economic activities, 10:23:40
6 mergers at the same time remove diversity of choice 10:23:44
7 from consumers. If that's not enough, they also 10:23:48
8 have attacked credit unions, trying to regain what 10:23:52
9 paltry six percent of the market they control. 10:23:56
10 We demand that their performance improve in our 10:24:00
11 neighborhoods. Norwest is the largest mortgage 10:24:04
12 company in the United States, and yet they are 10:24:06
13 behind the national average in their loans to people 10:24:08
14 of color. To African-Americans, Asians, Latinos, 10:24:10
15 and Native Americans, Norwest made a smaller 10:24:14
16 percentage of its loans than the national averages. 10:24:18
17 Almost 16 percent of all home loans made by all 10:24:22
18 lenders in the country were made to people of color, 10:24:24
19 but Norwest made only 10.5 percent of their loans to 10:24:26
20 people of color, way below the national average. 10:24:32
21 Even in the Twin Cities, where Norwest Corporation's 10:24:34
22 headquartered and where they are by far the largest 10:24:36
23 mortgage lender, they are below the average of all 10:24:40
24 lenders. Norwest made a similar percentage of loans 10:24:44
25 to people of color than the average of all other 10:24:48
67
1 lenders in the cities. 10:24:50
2 When we look at where Norwest made their loans, 10:24:52
3 they are once again below the average of all Twin 10:24:54
4 Cities lenders in the percentages of their loans 10:24:58
5 made to low to moderate income neighborhoods, and 10:25:00
6 the percentages of their loans made in integrated 10:25:02
7 and minority neighborhoods. 10:25:06
8 A representative earlier said something to the 10:25:08
9 effect that banks will not be healthy when 10:25:10
10 communities are struggling. Isn't this a little bit 10:25:12
11 of a cart before the horse argument? Is this why 10:25:14
12 it's hard for us to get banks to be operating in 10:25:16
13 neighborhoods like Phillips? When it comes to 10:25:20
14 rejecting minorities, Norwest is way above other 10:25:22
15 lenders in the Twin Cities. Norwest rejected 10:25:26
16 African-Americans almost three and a half times as 10:25:30
17 often as they rejected whites. 10:25:32
18 In the Twin Cities Norwest is especially bad 10:25:34
19 compared to other major banks here. US Bank, 10:25:36
20 formerly First Bank, and Twin City Federal. US Bank 10:25:40
21 and TCF each made more 5.5 percent of their home 10:25:44
22 purchase loans to African-Americans, while Norwest 10:25:48
23 made only two percent of their loans to 10:25:50
24 African-Americans. US Bank and TCF each made more 10:25:54
25 than 13 percent of their home purchase loans to 10:25:58
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1 people of color, but Norwest only made six percent 10:26:00
2 of their loans to people of color. US Bank and TCF 10:26:02
3 each made more than -- each made more, about 18 10:26:06
4 percent of their home purchase loans, to low and 10:26:12
5 moderate income neighborhoods, but Norwest made only 10:26:14
6 nine percent of its loans in these neighborhoods. 10:26:16
7 Why reward this racist, classist performance? 10:26:20
8 Is no one accountable? What is exactly your 10:26:24
9 responsibility toward the American people? Have you 10:26:26
10 any? 10:26:36
11
12 CHAIRPERSON SMITH: Thank you very much. 10:26:38
13 We will go to Ms. Whitfield. 10:26:38
14
15 MS. WHITFIELD: My name is Marilyn 10:26:42
16 Whitfield. I'm a board member of Minnesota ACORN, 10:26:44
17 and the co-chair for North Minneapolis Chapter of 10:26:46
18 ACORN. 10:26:48
19 In city after city we find the same pattern 10:26:48
20 that Norwest, the largest mortgage company in the 10:26:52
21 country, is below other lenders in their loans to 10:26:54
22 minorities and in low income neighborhoods, but 10:26:58
23 above other lenders in their denials of 10:27:00
24 African-Americans, Latinos, and Asians, in Austin, 10:27:02
25 Texas, Albuquerque, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, 10:27:08
69
1 Denver, Des Moines, Duluth, Minnesota, Houston, Las 10:27:12
2 Vegas, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Newark, New Orleans, 10:27:18
3 Oakland, Philadelphia, Phoenix, St. Louis, and in 10:27:22
4 Washington, D.C. What is Norwest going to do about 10:27:28
5 this? 10:27:30
6 Wells Fargo just announced that if the merger 10:27:32
7 is approved, it is going to lend $5 billion a year 10:27:34
8 in California to minorities and low income customers 10:27:38
9 for small businesses, mortgages and community 10:27:42
10 development. Why can't Norwest do the same thing in 10:27:44
11 Minnesota and other states? Other communities need 10:27:48
12 to be developed just as in California. People in 10:27:50
13 Minnesota also need help with small businesses and 10:27:54
14 community development. 10:27:58
15 In another recent merger, Nations Bank/Bank of 10:28:00
16 America committed to lend $35 billion a year to 10:28:02
17 minority and low income customers. Why can't 10:28:06
18 Norwest do the same thing? 10:28:10
19 After all these years of being here, Norwest is 10:28:10
20 moving their headquarters to California. They're 10:28:14
21 going to lay off a lot of employees and pocket huge 10:28:16
22 savings. What do the people of Minnesota get out of 10:28:22
23 it? We want Norwest to put some money back into the 10:28:24
24 community. 10:28:28
25
70
1 MR. ASH: Thank you. My name is Jordan
2 Ash, the loan counseling director for ACORN. I 10:28:34
3 apologize, my testimony is sitting on my kitchen 10:28:34
4 table, so I frantically was trying to reconstruct 10:28:36
5 it. I apologize if I stumble a little bit. 10:28:40
6 I'm the director of the loan counseling program 10:28:46
7 for Minnesota ACORN. The home buyer education 10:28:46
8 counseling program, there's a couple components to 10:28:52
9 it. One is that we work with banks to help them 10:28:52
10 improve their lending records by developing loan 10:28:56
11 products that are more realistic to help low and 10:28:58
12 moderate income people buy a house, such as lower 10:29:02
13 down payment closing costs, more flexible credit 10:29:04
14 guidelines, using alternative credit, counting -- 10:29:08
15 being more flexible in counting income. We also 10:29:10
16 promote home ownership by going out every day into 10:29:14
17 low income neighborhoods and talking to renters 10:29:16
18 about the benefits of home ownership, and that it is 10:29:18
19 possible. And, finally, that we have provided 10:29:20
20 one-on-one counseling to people to help them qualify 10:29:24
21 for loans, address credit problems, help them 10:29:26
22 understand that -- the process, and also have some 10:29:30
23 seminars and classes to help people understand the 10:29:32
24 general process of buying a house. 10:29:36
25 Because it's known in the community that 10:29:36
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1 through ACORN and the programs that we work with and 10:29:38
2 the banks that we work with, which is four of the 10:29:42
3 five major banks in the Twin Cities, except for 10:29:44
4 Norwest, because it's known that you can buy a house 10:29:46
5 through ACORN with a thousand to $15 hundred total 10:29:50
6 for your down payment and closing costs, people call 10:29:52
7 us up a few times a week and say don't you help with 10:29:54
8 down payment and closing costs? I'm closing next 10:29:58
9 week; I need $3,000 to buy a house. I heard that 10:30:00
10 you help with that. We say no, we don't help with 10:30:04
11 it. We've negotiated with banks, developed programs 10:30:04
12 where the banks provide the assistance. And in 10:30:06
13 talking and trying to figure out about their 10:30:08
14 situation, you might ask, well, who are you going 10:30:10
15 through? And invariably they'll say, Norwest. 10:30:14
16 As was said earlier, Norwest is the largest 10:30:16
17 mortgage company in the country. They're the 10:30:18
18 largest in the Twin Cities with 20 percent of all 10:30:20
19 loans. So most people are going through Norwest, 10:30:24
20 but they're calling us saying can you help with the 10:30:26
21 down payment? And why is that? Because Norwest 10:30:28
22 provides less assistance for down payment and 10:30:30
23 closing costs than all the other major banks in the 10:30:34
24 Twin Cities. TCF, US Bank, Firstar, and Marquette 10:30:36
25 all provide much more assistance than Norwest. 10:30:40
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1 There's some other problems with Norwest's 10:30:44
2 underwriting guidelines, which are -- to the problem 10:30:46
3 when they're, again, the biggest mortgage company in 10:30:48
4 the country and in the Twin Cities. Their debt 10:30:50
5 ratio is only 34 percent when all the other programs 10:30:52
6 are 41 percent. If you have what they count as 10:30:56
7 long-term debt, if you have a car payment, in order 10:31:00
8 to look at it and you're qualifying, they count 10:31:02
9 long-term debt as anything less than two months. 10:31:06
10 All the other programs count long-term debt as 10:31:08
11 anything less than ten months. It's ironic that 10:31:12
12 Norwest would penalize people that have large debts 10:31:14
13 because one of the reasons that they have these 10:31:16
14 large debts is because they've got car payments, 10:31:18
15 very high interest car payments through Norwest 10:31:22
16 subsidiaries. 10:31:24
17 It was mentioned earlier about Norwest's 10:31:26
18 helping -- working and helping people fix their 10:31:28
19 credit. Well, we believe that Norwest actually 10:31:30
20 profits more from people's bad credit and does more 10:31:32
21 damage to people's credit than any of the seminars 10:31:36
22 that they can hold. Norwest has contributed to the 10:31:38
23 existence in the United States of two separate and 10:31:42
24 very unequal financial systems: one for the rich and 10:31:46
25 one for the poor. As mainstream banks shut out low 10:31:48
73
1 income blue collar and minority customers, a fringe 10:31:52
2 economy has emerged of pawn shops, check cashing 10:31:54
3 stores and finance companies to fill the credit 10:31:58
4 void. With their high interest rates and 10:32:00
5 unnecessary credit insurance fees, these shadow 10:32:02
6 banks have generated greater profit margins than 10:32:04
7 even the largest banks. 10:32:06
8 In 1994, Norwest purchased a company called 10:32:10
9 Community Credit, so don't confuse it with Consumer 10:32:14
10 Credit Counseling, which is a very fine 10:32:16
11 organization. Community Credit is exactly the 10:32:18
12 opposite. It's a consumer loan company that targets 10:32:22
13 people with low incomes or bad credit. Community 10:32:24
14 Credit has 79 offices in 15 states. Soon after they 10:32:26
15 bought Community Credit, Norwest acquired two other 10:32:30
16 companies: City Side Savings, which doesn't help 10:32:32
17 people save any money, and Fidelity Acceptance,
18 which is not at all loyal, doesn't have any fidelity
19 to its customers.
20 According to a St. Paul Pioneer Press article 10:32:40
21 last year, Norwest is no stranger to the boom in big 10:32:42
22 risk, big reward consumer lending. It's Norwest's 10:32:46
23 financial unit, of which Fidelity will soon be a
24 part, was doing sub-prime net lending long before
25 Wall Street and several big banks bet on it in 10:32:54
74
1 recent years. So Norwest saw it, they saw the money 10:32:56
2 that could be made from taking advantage of people's 10:32:58
3 bad credit, and they jumped on it. They're smart. 10:33:02
4 That's why they make over a billion dollars' profit 10:33:04
5 a year. 10:33:04
6 According to -- again to quote the article, 10:33:06
7 they discovered what Norwest has known for years: 10:33:10
8 lending money to riskier borrowers can yield big 10:33:10
9 profits. Norwest Financial is consistently 10:33:14
10 Norwest's most profitable unit without suffering 10:33:16
11 ugly buildup of bad loans. It's a myth that there's 10:33:20
12 a higher risk in lending to -- that they are losing 10:33:22
13 money. They routinely, these consumer finance 10:33:26
14 companies that Norwest owns, routinely make more 10:33:28
15 profits and have a larger return on their assets 10:33:32
16 than the banks do. The average rate on Norwest 10:33:34
17 Financial's consumer loans was 21.22 percent in 10:33:38
18 1996. Compare this to what it would cost you if you 10:33:40
19 had a loan from Norwest Bank, which is right now 10:33:44
20 around 8 percent, can be more than double from just 10:33:46
21 another Norwest subsidiary. 10:33:50
22 And when Norwest turns someone down for a car 10:33:50
23 loan, they don't refer them to Consumer Credit 10:33:54
24 Counseling, they don't tell them about a seminar on 10:33:56
25 debt management or on money management. What they 10:34:00
75
1 do is refer them to Community Credit, and they've 10:34:02
2 acknowledged that they do this. They give customers 10:34:04
3 the number for Community Credit to get a car loan at 10:34:06
4 21 percent. We've even had instances where somebody 10:34:08
5 got a call at home, unsolicited, from Community 10:34:12
6 Credit, saying I heard you need a loan. Do you have 10:34:16
7 any collateral that you could use for it? 10:34:18
8 While Norwest has acknowledged this is a common 10:34:22
9 practice, they have failed to reply to our requests 10:34:26
10 about if there is a reciprocal relation; that is, 10:34:28
11 why can't customers be referred from Community 10:34:30
12 Credit to Norwest? They're the same company. If it 10:34:32
13 works one way, why can't it work the other? 10:34:36
14 Especially if they pay their car loan on time, why 10:34:38
15 can't it be refinanced through Norwest? Why can't 10:34:40
16 there be a program set up like that? 10:34:42
17 Well, Norwest actually keeps people trapped in 10:34:44
18 the fringe economy by thwarting customers' efforts 10:34:48
19 to re-establish their credit. As a general policy, 10:34:50
20 Community Credit does not report its loans to a 10:34:52
21 credit bureau. So even if a customer is making 10:34:54
22 their payments on time on that car, thinking well, I 10:34:58
23 need a car to get to work, I'll take the 21 percent 10:35:00
24 interest, I'll pay it on time, and eventually I will 10:35:02
25 be able to build up my credit better, they're not 10:35:04
76
1 building the new credit that they think they are, 10:35:06
2 which would allow them to eventually refinance or 10:35:08
3 receive a more favorable interest rate from a bank. 10:35:12
4 And Community Credit is, however -- it's not that 10:35:14
5 they don't work with the credit bureaus ever, 10:35:16
6 because they're very quick to report it to the 10:35:18
7 credit bureau if you default on a loan. The only 10:35:20
8 explanation for this that we can think of is that 10:35:22
9 the companies, Community Credit and other companies 10:35:24
10 in Norwest Financial, want to keep a captive 10:35:28
11 customer base. They don't want people to be able to 10:35:30
12 get lower interest rates, they don't want people to 10:35:32
13 be able to pay off their balance early, and they 10:35:34
14 want them to have to return to them again and again 10:35:38
15 for financing, repeat customers. And, in fact, when 10:35:38
16 Norwest acquired City Side Savings just last year, 10:35:42
17 which did report customers' on-time payments to the 10:35:44
18 credit bureau, they merged it into Community Credit, 10:35:48
19 and all of a sudden, the reporting of City Side's 10:35:50
20 customers' on-time payments abruptly stopped. 10:35:52
21 When we are doing our loan counseling and we 10:35:54
22 meet with somebody and we do their credit report, 10:35:56
23 we'll see they have a loan from City Side Savings, 10:35:58
24 and all of a sudden it says 10-97, and that's just a 10:36:02
25 date of last activity -- what are we now, 8-98 -- 10:36:06
77
1 just ends. All of a sudden on the credit report it 10:36:08
2 just ends. Thank you very much. 10:36:10
3
4 CHAIRPERSON SMITH: Mr. Bennett. 10:36:16
5
6 MR. ASH: We have a transparency, first of 10:36:22
7 all, to this.
8
9 CHAIRPERSON SMITH: Thank you.
10
11 MR. ASH: Where do we do that? 10:36:24
12
13 CHAIRPERSON SMITH: If you'll hand it to 10:36:26
14 Cassandra, and we'll put it into the record. 10:36:28
15 Mr. Bennett, if you'll start. 10:36:36
16
17 MR. BENNETT: My name is Alton Bennett, 10:36:38
18 and I'm the chair of the Banking and Housing Chapter 10:36:40
19 of Minnesota ACORN. I'm also a member of Minnesota 10:36:42
20 ACORN Board, I'm association board member, and I'm 10:36:44
21 the national treasurer. 10:36:50
22 A couple occasions Congress has expressed its 10:36:52
23 concern about the credit needs of low and moderate 10:36:56
24 income people in low and moderate income 10:36:58
25 neighborhoods. As a matter of fact, they've even 10:37:02
78
1 gone as far as to say that banking services are 10:37:04
2 essential for these types of neighborhoods to 10:37:06
3 survive. That is generally what leads the spirit of 10:37:06
4 CRA, the Community Reinvestment Act, that says that 10:37:12
5 banks must meet the credit needs of their entire 10:37:14
6 service area, specifically low and moderate income 10:37:18
7 people, not just the wealthy. 10:37:20
8 I wonder about products that take advantage of 10:37:22
9 low and moderate income people, and one of those 10:37:24
10 things is the checking accounts. I think everybody 10:37:26
11 can understand the importance of having a checking 10:37:30
12 account in your day-to-day activities, but we have 10:37:32
13 an example here that really truly brings the 10:37:34
14 experience of most of the people that we have dealt 10:37:38
15 with when it comes to Norwest. Norwest has raised 10:37:40
16 its bounced check fees twice -- at twice the rate of 10:37:46
17 inflation. In 1996, Norwest charged $12 for a 10:37:50
18 bounced check. In 1995, it had gone up to $21, and 10:37:52
19 this summer Norwest increased the fee again up to 10:37:58
20 $25, making it the highest bounced check fee in the 10:38:00
21 Twin Cities. 10:38:04
22 We have figures from the banking industry that 10:38:04
23 show that the real cost of a bounced check is about 10:38:06
24 $2.68. Norwest has denied this figure. They say 10:38:10
25 they have no idea how much it costs, but I wonder, 10:38:12
79
1 since they've raised it from 21 to 25 and they have 10:38:16
2 no idea how much it costs, how do they make the 10:38:20
3 decision to determine whether it should go up from 10:38:22
4 21 to 25? That's just always been curious. But, 10:38:24
5 anyway, they don't know how much it costs. 10:38:28
6 With us they can make so much money from 10:38:30
7 bounced checks, Norwest does things to get people to 10:38:34
8 bounce even more checks. They're the only major 10:38:36
9 bank in the Twin Cities that clears customers' 10:38:40
10 largest checks first. We have an article here that 10:38:42
11 shows that this is a practice among banks designed 10:38:44
12 solely to increase profit. Norwest says that they 10:38:48
13 do it because the customers' preference in a survey. 10:38:52
14 But Norwest refused to show us the survey. How was 10:38:54
15 the questions asked? Who were the customers that 10:38:58
16 they surveyed? I find it very difficult that they 10:39:00
17 would -- to believe that they would ask a customer 10:39:04
18 would you rather us charge you much more money to 10:39:06
19 process your largest check so that we can make a lot 10:39:10
20 more money off of it in order -- than do it the 10:39:14
21 other way in processing things as they come in? I 10:39:18
22 just can't believe that that would be the case. I'd 10:39:22
23 like to see a real-life example of a Norwest 10:39:26
24 customer who was affected by the policy clearing the 10:39:28
25 largest check first. 10:39:30
80
1 In this case, on April 30th -- and that 10:39:32
2 transparency is up there -- there were four checks 10:39:36
3 that come through. By putting the biggest check 10:39:38
4 through first, the one for $20.72, Norwest caused 10:39:40
5 three smaller checks to bounce. The customer was 10:39:44
6 then charged $63 for the overdraft -- for 10:39:48
7 overdrafts, each of which was under $10. If Norwest 10:39:50
8 had cleared them by check number or from smallest to 10:39:54
9 largest, the three smaller checks which totaled 10:39:58
10 $19.73, would have been paid instead, and only the
11 largest check would have bounced. 10:40:02
12 It is also worth noting that on May 1st, the 10:40:04
13 same day that she was charged $63, the customer had 10:40:08
14 two SSI checks directly deposited in her accounts 10:40:12
15 that regularly happened at the first of the month. 10:40:14
16 Now, Norwest says that people can avoid those 10:40:18
17 charges simply by getting overdraft protection. 10:40:22
18 Well, there's two problems with that. Number one, 10:40:26
19 people don't know about the overdraft protection 10:40:28
20 because Norwest doesn't advertise it, and when they 10:40:30
21 do apply for it, if they know about it, they get 10:40:32
22 turned down. The woman in this example had just
23 been turned down for overdraft protection the same 10:40:36
24 month that she was approved by our housing 10:40:38
25 counseling program for a loan. I think that's 10:40:44
81
1 pretty particularly interesting. 10:40:48
2 Two years ago we met with Norwest about this 10:40:50
3 problem. We proposed a program that would make it 10:40:52
4 easier for low income people to qualify for 10:40:54
5 overdraft protection. Norwest refused to do 10:40:58
6 anything about it. We have found that when people 10:41:00
7 bounce a check, it is not something that they did 10:41:02
8 deliberately. Most of the time it is an honest 10:41:04
9 mistake or it happened in a narrow period of time 10:41:06
10 between when the person's -- when people deposit a 10:41:10
11 check and when they credit that deposit to that 10:41:12
12 account. So there is no real overdraft protection. 10:41:16
13 Norwest has said that the customers shouldn't 10:41:20
14 be surprised when they have bounced checks because 10:41:22
15 customers are told about these fees and policies. 10:41:26
16 In fact, the federal law requires the bank to give 10:41:28
17 new customers information about bank fees and funds 10:41:30
18 available policy, but that is not the case in 10:41:32
19 Norwest. Last summer we did a testing program. We 10:41:36
20 sent in 28 people to open checking accounts at 10:41:38
21 Norwest. Of those 28 people, six people were given 10:41:42
22 the information required by law, six were given some 10:41:44
23 but not all the information, and a larger majority, 10:41:48
24 16, were given nothing at all. We currently have a 10:41:52
25 lawsuit against Norwest over these violations. 10:41:54
82
1 There are other bank fees that are of concern 10:41:58
2 to us. One thing -- one of these things we want to 10:42:00
3 know is what happens to Norwest's checking account 10:42:04
4 and savings account, what will happen to them this 10:42:06
5 summer? Wells Fargo stopped honoring checks, free 10:42:10
6 checking accounts for senior citizens who have been 10:42:14
7 customers at First Interstate, Wells Fargo's last 10:42:16
8 merger. Now these seniors must either use Wells 10:42:22
9 Fargo basic ATM checking account, which has a 10:42:24
10 five-fifty a month fee and requires customers to do 10:42:28
11 all their banking at ATM, or Wells Fargo's 10:42:30
12 Stagecoach checking account, which costs $9 a 10:42:34
13 monthly fee. What protection will there be for 10:42:36
14 senior citizens in the future? 10:42:40
15
16 CHAIRPERSON SMITH: Thank you very much. 10:42:42
17 Are there any questions from the panel? If not, 10:42:44
18 thank you very much for coming this morning. We are 10:42:48
19 scheduled for a ten-minute break, and I would remind 10:42:52
20 attendees that if you happen to go outside the 10:42:58
21 building, you will need your badge to get back 10:43:02
22 inside and will need to go through the security 10:43:06
23 check-in once more. So we'll see you in about ten 10:43:08
24 minutes. 10:43:14
25