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Comment by bob1029 | Hacker News Reader

I agree their charter should effectively be revoked at this point. A de novo bank (i.e. being granted a new charter) is a near impossibility in the US. Something this difficult to obtain should be just as easy to lose.

Unfortunately, the FDIC can't just waltz in and shut down the whole damn bank without causing a nation-wide panic attack. Similar to failed banks, something like this would need to be dealt with using a special procedure to prevent bank runs.

I think the best course of action would be to vacate the Wells Fargo board (and all officers), replacing them with members sourced from other US financial institutions.

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> Similar to failed banks, something like this would need to be dealt with using a special procedure to prevent bank runs.

You could, I suppose, use exactly the same procedure you use for a failed bank, which is force them to auction off their assets and liabilities, rolling their depositors into other, better-behaved banks.

De novo banks open all the time. 13 new de novo started business in 2022 [1]

New management is important, and in this case Wells Fargo has had 4 CEOs since the scandal, and multiple board chairpersons. There has been significant turnover on its board and executive team. [2]

[1] https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights...

[2] https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/wells-fargos-long-r...

> De novo banks open all the time. 13 new de novo started business in 2022

In a $25T economy, 13 new banks (roughly 1 for every 4 states) effectively rounds down to zero. There is a trivial amount of new bank creation relative to the size and dynamism of our country and economy.

In a more liberal banking regime, one could easily imagine 2022 having seen 13 new banks chartered in the northern half of California alone.

>In a $25T economy, 13 new banks (roughly 1 for every 4 states) effectively rounds down to zero.

Using this logic, in an infinitely large universe, your comment’s importance effectively rounds down to zero. Arbitrary picking economy output to measure regulatory regime efficiency is ludicrous.

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