Wells Fargo Bank’s Products, Services, and Operations

Wells Fargo Bank’s Products, Services, and Operations The company that an individual selected for this assignment is Wells Fargo Bank. In particular, Wells Fargo Bank is a multinational financial services firm with corporate headquarters located in San Francisco, California. Indeed, it was established in 1852, by Henry Wells, William Fargo, and John Butterfield. The bank’s operational headquarters are in Manhattan. Wells Fargo Bank ranks fourth in total assets in the United States of America (USA). The financial institution has also the largest market capitalization and bank deposits in the USA. Wells Fargo Bank's primary competitors are Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of America. In addition, it has managerial offices in the USA and globally. Being one of the biggest banks in the USA, Wells Fargo has over 12,000 automated teller machines (ATMs) and 8,050 branches (Wells Fargo, 1). The bank operates in about thirty-five countries and has more than 70 million clients internationally. The products and services that Wells Fargo Bank deals with include investment banking, asset management, credit card, equities trading, mutual funds, wealth management, global market, insurance, mortgage loans, investment management, risk management, and private equity. The bank also provides savings plans, personal loans, commercial finance, and treasury management. The paper focuses on a financial risk mitigation plan for Wells Fargo Bank. When Wells Fargo Bank was founded, the primary objective was to offer banking or financial services in California. However, its diversification in various financial services made the financial institution grow and expand to what it is today. Currently, Wells Fargo & Company has about $1.92 trillion in total assets (Wells Fargo Bank, 2). The bank’s vision is to satisfy its clients’ financial needs to make them succeed financially. Wells Fargo Bank operations entail providing swift financial services to its customers, may it be savings, loans, and investment opportunities. Today, Wells Fargo Bank provides both mobile and online banking. That way, its customers can get flexibility and accessibility of using their funds at any time they want. One in every three households in the USA uses Wells Fargo banking services. Wells Fargo Bank serves retail, institutional, and commercial clients within the USA and outside. Being among the top five banks in the USA, Wells Fargo Bank must have an effective financial risk mitigation plan. Specifically, the firm deals with money, which is a motivation for numerous risks from both inside and outside the company. On that note, Wells Fargo Bank has a steady financial risk mitigation plan, but that does not mean that it is not tested regularly.
Three Types of Financial Fraud Common to Wells Fargo Bank and Their Detailed Descriptions
Wells Fargo Bank is in the banking or financial industry. This sector is targeted by numerous criminals whose primary motivation is money. In that light, the three primary types of financial fraud common to Wells Fargo Bank are accounting fraud, fraudulent loan applications, and Internet or phishing fraud. Notably, accounting fraud refers to the intentional alteration of a firm’s financial statements so that it can create a false appearance or impression of its corporate financial health. Organizations engage in accounting fraud to mislead shareholders and investors. For example, when these individuals see that an institution’s profitability is increasing, they are likely to invest more money since they are motivated by the financial benefits or profits they get from their investments. Accounting fraud might occur in several ways. For example, on 8th September 2016, Wells Fargo Bank was fined about $185 million due to accounting fraud (Sridharan, 3). Wells Fargo Bank had pushed its employees to meet a certain threshold of opening new accounts for its customers. Since workers were unable to meet the set target, they were obliged to fraudulently create unauthorized client credit card and deposit accounts. The bank intended to benefit from charging its clients fees for opening those accounts. In the case of Wells Fargo Bank, the intention was to increase its revenues through the accounting opening scandal. As a result, accounting fraud is common in the banking sector, but it tarnishes the reputation of a company in the long run.
Another type of financial fraud common in the financial industry is the Internet and phishing fraud. Wells Fargo Bank provides mobile and online banking services to its millions of customers globally. On that note, clients of this financial institution can access their funds regardless of their geographical locations as long as they are connected on the web or can use their mobile devices. Although Wells Fargo Bank has a thorough authorization and authentication process to ensure that only authorized individuals can access their money, security loopholes might make the bank vulnerable to hackers. Currently, many people do not want to queue at a bank to withdraw or deposit money over the counter or teller. They want to deposit, withdraw, pay, or transfer money by using their smartphones or electronic gadgets in the comfort of their homes (Datta, 4). That is what creates security loopholes for Wells Fargo Bank since its customers can easily be tricked through cyber stalking or social engineering tactics and give access to their accounts to cybercriminals. For example, the common malicious programs that hackers commonly use to steal people’s financial information on the Internet are viruses, malware, Trojan infections, and worms (Wang, 5). An Internet or phishing fraud can occur when a cybercriminal sends a malicious email to a potential Wells Fargo Bank customer. When the client opens the email, which has been designed to look like that of a Wells Fargo Bank, his or her electronic device is infected by malware. The malware steals the person’s information on the electronic gadget and records everything that an individual is doing online. With time, the hacker will get all the information, including the date of birth, physical address, names, email address, credit card number, passwords, cookies, and everything else the cybercriminal needs to fulfill his mission. That way, the unauthorized person gains access to the Wells Fargo Bank’s customer’s account and can perform any transaction without raising any suspicion to the banking system. For example, the person can pay for things online or send money...