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	<title type="text">Aaron Coleman | Vox</title>
	<subtitle type="text">Our world has too much noise and too little context. Vox helps you understand what matters.</subtitle>

	<updated>2019-03-11T20:50:59+00:00</updated>

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		<entry>
			
			<author>
				<name>Aaron Coleman</name>
			</author>
			
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[New brand, same culture: Wells Fargo workers say the company is still toxic]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.vox.com/2019/3/9/18257863/wells-fargo-bank-employees-customer-practices" />
			<id>https://www.vox.com/2019/3/9/18257863/wells-fargo-bank-employees-customer-practices</id>
			<updated>2019-03-11T16:50:59-04:00</updated>
			<published>2019-03-09T16:14:53-05:00</published>
			<category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Business &amp; Finance" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Money" />
							<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Wells Fargo lost so much public trust for the bank&#8217;s shady business practices, which came to light in the aftermath of the Great Recession, that it spent much of last year apologizing with its Wells Fargo &#8220;Re-established&#8221; campaign. But according to a new report from the New York Times, the nation&#8217;s fourth-largest bank hasn&#8217;t been [&#8230;]]]></summary>
			
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<img alt="" data-caption="A customer uses an ATM at a Wells Fargo Bank office on February 7, 2019, in San Francisco. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images" data-portal-copyright="Justin Sullivan/Getty Images" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15950314/1128076581.jpg.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" />
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	A customer uses an ATM at a Wells Fargo Bank office on February 7, 2019, in San Francisco. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images	</figcaption>
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<p>Wells Fargo lost so much public trust for the bank&rsquo;s shady business practices, which came to light in the aftermath of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/9/14/17856048/movies-financial-crisis-streaming-lehman-brothers-versailles-big-short-inside-job">Great Recession</a>, that it spent much of last year apologizing with its Wells Fargo &ldquo;<a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=Wells+Fargo+re-established+2018+campaign&amp;oq=Wells+Fargo+re-established+2018+campaign&amp;aqs=chrome..69i57.296j0j7&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8">Re-established</a>&rdquo; campaign. But according to a new report from the New York Times, the nation&rsquo;s fourth-largest bank hasn&rsquo;t been reformed as much as it&rsquo;s been rebranded.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/09/business/wells-fargo-sales-culture.html?action=click&amp;module=Top%20Stories&amp;pgtype=Homepage">According to Times reporters Emily Flitter and Stacy Cowley</a>, &ldquo;Wells Fargo workers say they remain under heavy pressure to squeeze extra money out of customers&rdquo; and that employees &ldquo;have witnessed colleagues bending or breaking internal rules to meet ambitious performance goals.&rdquo;</p>

<p>There&rsquo;s &ldquo;no evidence&rdquo; that workers are secretly opening accounts in customers&rsquo; names, as they did in the past, but employees have reportedly<strong> </strong>been pressured by Wells Fargo to sell financial products customers can&rsquo;t afford, collect credit card debt at breakneck speeds, and send incorrect interest rates and fee calculations on mortgages. A financial adviser interviewed noted the company pushed her to steer clients toward fee-generating investments including an instance in which &ldquo;it was not in the client&rsquo;s best interest.&rdquo;</p>

<p>The investigation indicated that there is large-scale concern internally among the rank-and-file workers about the authenticity of Wells Fargo&rsquo;s new commitment to ethical business practices:</p>
<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-text-align-none is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>In a survey of more than 27,000 employees in the bank&rsquo;s information-technology department late last year, top concerns included their ability to raise grievances with managers and whether &ldquo;Wells Fargo conducts its business activities with honesty and integrity.&rdquo; Workers recently flooded the bank&rsquo;s internal blog with hundreds of angry comments about Wells Fargo&rsquo;s sales incentives, pay and ethics and leaders&rsquo; &ldquo;doublespeak,&rdquo; according to screenshots of the blog reviewed by The Times.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Responding to the criticism to the Times, Wells Fargo executives stated that the bank&rsquo;s culture had improved and that fewer employees were incentivized to sell products to customers.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The long shadow of Wells Fargo impropriety</h2>
<p>Over the past decade, Wells Fargo seemed to seek new ways to outdo itself in fraudulent activity. After the bank was caught creating fake accounts for its customers, <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/12/19/16795540/wells-fargo-republican-tax-bill">Vox&rsquo;s Emily Stewart wrote</a> that it had developed a reputation as &ldquo;one of the financial industry&rsquo;s worst actors.&rdquo;</p>

<p>The San Francisco-based firm created up to 3.5 million fake accounts for its customers over a more than seven-year span, resulting in a $185 million fine levied in September 2016, including $100 million to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the federal government&rsquo;s top consumer watchdog. Wells Fargo fired at least 5,300 employees who were involved in the scam, in which they issued credit cards without customers&rsquo; consent that were only discovered when they began accumulating fees. The bank&rsquo;s CEO, John Stumpf, was forced into retirement.</p>

<p>The bank accounts were only the most recent infraction. Leading up to the financial crisis, Wells Fargo pedaled subprime mortgages and targeted black neighborhoods with toxic loans. The bank created an emerging-markets unit that went after black churches, and investigations revealed that loan officers described black customers as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/us/07baltimore.html">&ldquo;mud people&rdquo;</a> and called subprime products &ldquo;ghetto loans.&rdquo;</p>

<p>These infractions, the reports of a toxic culture, and the more recent creation of fake accounts continue to undermine the company&rsquo;s rebranding goals.</p>
<div class="twitter-embed"><a href="https://twitter.com/eveewing/status/1015040690034823175?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">View Link</a></div>
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			<entry>
			
			<author>
				<name>Aaron Coleman</name>
			</author>
			
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[New EU travel requirements mean (slightly) more paperwork for American visitors]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.vox.com/2019/3/9/18257707/europe-new-visa-requirements-americans-2021" />
			<id>https://www.vox.com/2019/3/9/18257707/europe-new-visa-requirements-americans-2021</id>
			<updated>2019-03-11T16:35:05-04:00</updated>
			<published>2019-03-09T14:37:32-05:00</published>
			<category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Politics" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="World Politics" />
							<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Starting in 2021, Americans will no longer be able to hop across the pond for a spur-of-the-moment visit to Europe without completing preauthorization paperwork. But they still won&#8217;t need a visa. On Friday, multiple outlets reported that the European Union had announced that Americans would be required to complete a new visa to visit member [&#8230;]]]></summary>
			
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<img alt="" data-caption="General view of Frankfurt Airport Terminal 2 during a pilot strike on August 10, 2018, in Frankfurt, Germany. | Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images" data-portal-copyright="Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15950084/GettyImages_1014354234.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" />
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	General view of Frankfurt Airport Terminal 2 during a pilot strike on August 10, 2018, in Frankfurt, Germany. | Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images	</figcaption>
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<p>Starting in 2021, Americans will no longer be able to hop across the pond for a spur-of-the-moment visit to Europe without completing preauthorization paperwork. But they still won&rsquo;t need a visa.</p>

<p>On Friday, multiple outlets <a href="https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/us-citizens-need-visas-to-visit-europe-in-2021/index.html">reported</a> that the European Union had announced that Americans would be required to complete a new visa to visit member countries &mdash; a shift away from the current policy which allows US citizens to travel through the 26 European members of the &ldquo;<a href="https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/schengen-agreement/">Schengen Area</a>&rdquo; for up to 90 days without a visa.</p>

<p>In actuality, the EU&rsquo;s new requirements were <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-4367_en.htm">announced last year</a> and are much less intensive: Beginning in 2021, American visitors and other visa-free travelers to the EU must first obtain a European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) registration. It&rsquo;s not a full visa application, but a short online application that should cost 7 euros (about $8), the EU <a href="https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/us-citizens-need-visas-to-visit-europe-in-2021/index.html">told CNN</a>. It does require a valid passport, email account, and a credit or debit card <a href="https://www.etiasvisa.com/etias-requirements/americans">the EU says</a>.</p>

<p>The authorization will last for three years and allows Americans to enter the Schengen Area as many times as necessary during that period.</p>

<p>Some applicants could be rejected, but the EU expects 95 percent of people will be automatically approved &mdash; so still a slight shift from the current travel policies, but a less significant one.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter alignnone"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Neither the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ESTA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ESTA</a> nor the future <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ETIAS?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ETIAS</a> (EU equivalent) are visas. They carry out pre-travel screening for travellers benefiting from visa-free access: <a href="https://t.co/PrxtVjKe3e">https://t.co/PrxtVjKe3e</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/thehill?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@thehill</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/EUHomeAffairs?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@EUHomeAffairs</a> @JKingEU <a href="https://t.co/SBGzh6RmW9">https://t.co/SBGzh6RmW9</a></p>&mdash; European Union in the U.S. (@EUintheUS) <a href="https://twitter.com/EUintheUS/status/1104201611512033280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<p>Explaining the new requirement, the European Union cited the desire &ldquo;to improve their security level to avoid any further problems with illegal migration and terrorism.&rdquo; However, the creation of the ETIAS visa comes after the United States has declined to allow travel freedom for all EU members.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/us-citizens-need-visas-to-visit-europe-in-2021/index.html">According to CNN</a>, the United States currently requires citizens from Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland, Romania, and Cyprus to obtain similar preauthorization to enter the country. These are the only EU members that have a screening requirement for US travel. The US and the EU quarreled over this policy in recent years, with the <a href="https://redirect.viglink.com/?format=go&amp;jsonp=vglnk_155215401293713&amp;key=a426d7531bff1ca375d5930dea560b93&amp;libId=jt1pmsgu0102i8oq000DA1lqsbd4h3r89a&amp;loc=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2Ftravel%2Farticle%2Fus-citizens-need-visas-to-visit-europe-in-2021%2Findex.html&amp;v=1&amp;out=https%3A%2F%2Fec.europa.eu%2Fhome-affairs%2Fsites%2Fhomeaffairs%2Ffiles%2Fwhat-is-new%2Fnews%2Fnews%2Fdocs%2Fstate_of_play_possible_ways_forward_regards_situation_non-reciprocity_with_certain_third_countries_area_visa_policy_en.pdf&amp;title=United%20States%20citizens%20will%20need%20a%20visa%20to%20visit%20Europe%20starting%20in%202021%20%7C%20CNN%20Travel&amp;txt=report%20">European Commission releasing a report in 2016</a> requesting that the US grant visa-free travel to these five countries per EU equal-treatment requirements.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">America’s relationship with Europe isn’t going great</h2>
<p>The added red tape on US travel to Europe come as American relations have chilled with the continent under President Donald Trump&rsquo;s administration. The latest example of the US&rsquo;s increasingly rocky relationship with its long-standing allies came just last month, when Vice President Mike Pence was met with silence during a speech in Poland as he called on European allies to pull out of the Iran nuclear agreement.</p>

<p>The speech resulted in two &ldquo;cringeworthy&rdquo; viral videos, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/2/18/18229268/pence-europe-viral-clips-speeches-trump-allies">writes Vox&rsquo;s Aaron Rupar</a>, who noted how they &ldquo;illustrate how unpopular the Trump administration has become with the United States&rsquo; European allies.&rdquo;</p>
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter alignnone"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-dnt="true" data-conversation="none"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">OMG &#8212; Pence was visibly shook in Poland when he received absolutely no reaction to what was clearly supposed to be an applause line about how &quot;the time has come for our European partners to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/biRxARZkcM">pic.twitter.com/biRxARZkcM</a></p>&mdash; Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) <a href="https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1096895035067584512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div></figure>
<p>Last year when discussing trade practices, Trump compared the European Union to China, a country that the Pentagon has identified as one of the US&rsquo;s two major competitors globally. Covering the declining bond, Vox&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2018/7/1/17522984/europe-china-trade-war-trump">Caroline Houck wrote</a> that &ldquo;to Trump, allies are only allies if the money&rsquo;s all square&rdquo;:</p>
<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-text-align-none is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>&ldquo;If you want to be America&rsquo;s ally, in <a href="https://www.vox.com/donald-trump">Trump&rsquo;s</a> book, you better make sure you&rsquo;ve paid up &mdash; whether that&rsquo;s buying American goods or upping your <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/6/28/17513972/trump-nato-russia-putin-nafta">defense spending</a>.</p>

<p>He routinely brings up the cost of joint military exercises and questions why partner countries don&rsquo;t pay to host US troops around the world &mdash; two actions which benefit US national security. Trump also regularly <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/6/28/17513972/trump-nato-russia-putin-nafta">criticizes NATO</a> countries for not spending enough on defense, and just recently in the run-up to the alliance&rsquo;s biannual summit <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/06/27/ahead-of-nato-summit-u-s-president-exhorts-allies-to-pay-up-transatlantic-alliance-trump-brussels-summit-letter-to-allies-burden-sharing-two-percent-defense-spending/">sent letters</a> to at least several members hitting those points again.&rdquo;</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/7/15/17573836/trump-european-union-americas-foe">Houck explained</a> how Trump described the European Union as a &ldquo;foe&rdquo; of the United States. Speaking with <em>CBS Evening News</em> anchor Jeff Glor about American adversaries, Trump said. &ldquo;I think the European Union is a foe; what they do to us is in trade. Now, you wouldn&rsquo;t think of the European Union, but they&rsquo;re a foe.&rdquo;</p>

<p>New travel requirements are hardly the actions of foes, but they are the latest update in a relationship that&rsquo;s had its fair share of recent posturing, from new tariffs to traded barbs.</p>
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