Founded in 2009 after Wells Fargo’s acquisition of Wachovia Securities, Wells Fargo Securities, LLC (“WFS”) is a broker-dealer headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. WFS is the investment banking division of Wells Fargo & Co. and provides sales and trading, fixed income, FX and rates, equity, merger & acquisition, high yield, leveraged finance, equity underwriting, private placement, loan syndication, risk management, and public finance services.
WFS has U.S. offices in New York, Minneapolis, Boston, Houston, San Francisco, and Los Angeles and international offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, and London. WFS brokers are licensed in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Financial Misconduct at Wells Fargo Securities, LLC
WFS is licensed by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and as such is legally obligated to ensure its brokers are acting lawfully in the interest of their investors. If a client suffers losses as a result of negligent behavior or misconduct from a broker, then the firm may be held legally responsible to repay the damages.
WFS and brokers backed by WFS have a long history of misconduct. Per FINRA’s BrokerCheck report, the firm has been the subject of 145 regulatory events.
In December 2022, FINRA initiated a claim against WFS, finding that from December 2016 to June 2018, due to two different technological misconfigurations with WFS’ systems, the firm overstated its advertised trade volume on Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters, two third-party private subscription-based providers of market data. This resulted in an overstatement of 148M+ shares. WFS failed to establish and maintain a supervisory system that was reasonably designed to achieve compliance with FINRA rules, which would have identified the overstatements. WFS was censured and fined $200,000.
In September 2021, WFS was fined $250M after the Office of Comptroller of the Currency alleged that it engaged in unsafe or unsound practices related to loss mitigation activities and inadequate independent risk management and internal audit of the loss mitigation.
Wondering If You Have a Claim? Contact Our Firm Now!
Meyer Wilson reclaimed $350 million for the victims of investment fraud or misconduct. Our attorneys are experienced in going up against the largest investment firms, such as Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, and our track record affirms our resources and expertise. Meyer Wilson has represented clients nationwide and internationally, in state and federal courts, and in securities arbitration. As an investor, you have a right to recover investments lost through unethical behavior or decisions made against your interests.
