The scandal at Wells Fargo, considered by many the best US bank, involved employees opening accounts, and issuing credit cards to customers without customers asking for it. Why did they do it? Because they were given high targets on account/credit card openings. So they faked it, "met" the targets and received bonuses. As a result, the bank fired 5300 employees.
What is unusual is that the CEO of the bank had part of his compensation clawed back. Not a small part: he lost 40 million dollars, a quarter of what he earned during his almost 35 years at the bank.
What was happening with banking scandals before? A bank would agree to pay a penalty for malfeasance, without admitting guilt. So, in effect, the executives would have been rewarded for malfeasance through the bonuses they received, and shareholders paid the price since any penalty imposed at a bank would be reflected in its share prices.
So the executives got the upside and none of the downsides.
To reflect this, a term was coined: banskters. Unlike gangsters, who eventually are caught and sent to jail, banksters are not.
Hence the song: Damn It Feels Good To Be A Bangsta.
For more details, see post 2014-20.
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