Top-tier bank Wells Fargo responded today to a Wall Street Journal report that stated its foreign exchange pricing was unfavorable to its customers, disputing several points within the published story.
Published yesterday, the WSJ story reports that bankers at Wells Fargo are overcharging customers for foreign exchange as a way to fatten their bonus checks.
Only 35 of about 300 fee agreements closed by the bank’s foreign exchange group were charged accurately, according to an internal review, said employees speaking to the WSJ.
In a statement released today, Wells Fargo Wholesale Banking Head Perry Pelos stated that the bank had “informed The Wall Street Journal that their story had fundamental inaccuracies before they published,” and that the bank’s “points and views were either absent in the finished story or not taken seriously by the paper.”
The bank also included a list of facts reported in the WSJ that it “takes issue with,” including the 35/300 fee agreement figure. Wells Fargo states:
The assertion that an internal review showed that out of roughly 300 fee agreements only about 35 companies were charged the actual price they had been offered for currency trades is factually incorrect. No internal review leading to that conclusion was conducted by the business. The paper’s characterization appears to be tied to unnamed sources and an alleged conference call referenced in the story’s opening that could not be verified by our company as having occurred.
Read more at the WSJ, Fortune, and BusinessWire.