Fraud and discrimination at Wells Fargo have cost the company's shareholders a quarter of a billion dollars. As punishment, head of Community Banking Carrie Tolstedt will be paid $125 million to retire. The fines - $185 million for account fraud, $55 million for ADA discrimination, and  $3.5 million in student loan fraud – are staggering, but not nearly so much as the lack of accountability for the company's senior officers.
Wells Fargo is firing 5300 employees in response to their fraud of illicitly opening millions of customer accounts in the division Ms. Tolstedt leads. CEO John Stumpf claims the fraud was not systemic or due to the culture of the company and CFO John Shrewsberry claims “a few” employees were underperforming and trying to meet their sales performance targets.
I would not classify 5300 employees as “a few”. As an organizational change expert I do not accept that fraud is not part of the Wells Fargo culture. Corporate culture is largely determined by two factors – leadership behavior and performance compensation systems. When that many people are breaking the law for years there exists a culture of corruption and a compensation plan encouraging unchecked illegal behavior. 
Indeed, Wells Fargo recognizes and is eliminating part of the problem by axing sales targets from the pay plan. But what does it say to employees when low-level workers are fired and the executive accountable for the division repeatedly breaking the law gets to walk away with a $125 million reward?

Lost in this week's spectacular yet inevitable revelations that Wells Fargo illicitly opened millions of unauthorized customer accounts is the company's illegal treatment of people living with disabilities.
Wells Fargo was ordered to pay $16 million in compensation and fines in 2011 in a settlement for denying access to facilities, products and services to people with disabilities. Why am I bringing this up now? Because, 5 years later, the discrimination is still going on. 
As part of launching my businesses I have unsuccessfully tried to open small business accounts with Wells Fargo using the internet, telephone, and in person. They will not accept my computer speech as my voice, do not accept electronic signatures, and I can't get in their branches. By their on admission, 5 years after their settlement, Wells Fargo has made fewer than one-third of their branches accessible. 
What really burns me, though, is that head of Community Banking Carrie Tolstedt is retiring after this year with a $125 million bonus.