Salon: "Wells Fargo is not your amigo" (preys on minorities, donates to anti-immigration Repubs)

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Friday, Oct 28, 2011 11:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time
Wells Fargo is not your amigo
The banking giant preys on minorities while its executives donate to anti-immigration Republicans
By Tim Fitzsimons

http://www.salon.com/2011/10/28/wells_fargo_is_not_your_amigo/



After allegations of racially based predatory lending tarnished its image, Wells Fargo is making renewed efforts to increase its customer base among Latinos, the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population. The San Franciso-based banking giant, which has long touted its support for the Hispanic community, is now embarked on a new “educational campaign” that it says will help Latino customers enter into the financial mainstream.

As part of its push for “under banked” customers, Wells Fargo has partnered with a firm called SABEResPODER (“Knowledge is Power”). In April, the two companies announced a three-month “educational campaign” to provide Spanish-language tutorials on how to access the banking system. Has Wells Fargo changed the dubious practices that generated negative news coverage? Or has it simply changed its marketing?

The answers matter. Though Wells Fargo is the smallest of America’s Big Four banks with a mere $1.2 trillion in assets, it is the nation’s top consumer lender. Behind the new advertising push lies the reality of Wells Fargo’s lending practices, investments and political contributions, which should interest anybody who banks there.

Wells Fargo has a history of targeting vulnerable communities for risky financial products. At the height of the subprime lending mania in 2006, the bank was more likely to loan subprime mortgages to Latinos and African-Americans than whites, according to a September 2009 report by the Center for American Progress, a process known as “reverse red-lining.” For financially stable borrowers, the targeting was even starker: Middle-class blacks were four times more likely than middle-class whites to get a dangerous mortgage. Middle-class Latinos were nearly three times more likely.