[Photo: Mike Mozart / Flickr cc]

A letter sent to Wells Fargo management by an anonymous Arizona employee indicates regional executives played a role in the spread of the sales practices behind the bank’s recent scandal

Arizona was apparently one epicenter of scandalous account practices at Wells Fargo. So says a letter, anonymously sent by a Wells Fargo employee to top executives, that claims regional executives who oversaw bank branches in Arizona encouraged bankers to lead customers to open multiple products or to find ways to open accounts without customers’ specific knowledge.  The letter further suggests how bad behavior in one part of the bank may have spread to other parts of the country, fueling its sales-practices scandal.

The letter from a bank manager was sent late last month to Mary Mack, who in July took over as Wells Fargo’s head of retail banking, as well as human-resources executives and a “code of ethics” email address. Current employees and managers apparently are now waiting to see how the bank responds and, given past alleged instances of retaliation against employees who reported problems at Wells Fargo, whether there will be any attempt at reprisals to the letter. Area presidents who oversee dozens of branches in Arizona were interviewed this past week by Wells Fargo investigators

The Arizona area once ranked last in terms of sales among roughly 35 national Wells Fargo regions. The state climbed in about 2 years around the start of this decade to #1 through the use of what current and former employees reportedly say were aggressive sales goals and questionable training programs pushed by regional managers who were related or close friends.

The top rank became a source of pride for managers in Arizona. “The satisfaction of being ‘#1, second to no one,’ has [evolved] into an addiction,” according to the letter. The letter adds that Arizona managers were later recruited to other parts of the country where their tactics proliferated. That “enabled the culture to spread through the nation like cancer.”

The push to drive new product and account openings came from top executives in the Arizona region, the employee letter said. Lead Regional President Pam Conboy, now 2 executive levels below Ms. Mack, spearheaded some of these programs, the letter said.

Problems in the state persist, however:  The Arizona region had 438 customer complaints in mid-2016 in 179 of its 250 branches, according to an internal chart of customer “inquiries” reviewed by the WSJournal. It is the only region in the list to have more than 400 total inquiries.