According to Meeks, U.S. regulators need to make sure that Wells Fargo's scandal of opening millions of bank accounts without permission or authorization from clients isn't happening at other large banks.
Meeks expanded that the regulators should be taking a closer look at banks to make sure the Wells Fargo scandal isn't a "systemic thing with all of the banks."
Moving on to how regulators have handled the Wells Fargo scandal thus far, Meeks suggested that the fine Wells Fargo was slapped with is "too small." Moreover, the job of regulators is to properly detect the type of fraud which occurred at Wells Fargo and obviously the appropriate agencies have failed in this regard.
When asked if Wells Fargo's scandal is a matter for lawmakers to intervene or if it should be handled internally, Meeks answered:
- "Perception is important. If you are a baseball manager ... and something goes wrong on a consistent basis that individual is generally fired as a result of it because it happened on his or her watch. The same thing is happening here. I am arguing on behalf of my constituents and the American people. I want to restore confidence in Wells Fargo to make sure we maintain confidence with Wall Street and Main Street."
He added that the only way for Wells Fargo to restore confidence at this point is to simply appoint a new CEO.
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