Wells was left reeling after it emerged that staff at the bank had opened nearly two million fake accounts for its customers to meet sales targets.
Since then the US lender’s chief executive John Stumpf has been forced to step down, several US states have temporarily removed the bank from their lists of approved debt underwriters, and new credit card openings have plummeted.
And then Wells Fargo decided it was better to postpone the sale of a 10 year senior bond this week amid an outlook downgrade from S&P.
The US bank completed the $3.5bn transaction a day later, but the message was clear: reputational damage does not just impact customer loyalty or litigation reserves, it impacts funding too.
Despite third quarter earnings coming in ahead of expectations, Wells’ credit spreads have widened versus its peers. And the signs suggest things will only get worse in the short term.
In the wake of the Wells scandal, Citi and JP Morgan have had to field questions about their own selling practices from analysts sniffing for more trouble. Perhaps belatedly, both said they were looking more closely at their sales culture.
Financial institutions should have learned by now that encouraging bad behaviour leads to problems, not prosperity.
That well rated Wells Fargo hesitated when selling a bond this week is a warning shot: a risk to your reputation can all too easily become a risk to your funding plans.