Banking Trends 2016: TCF, Citigroup, Wells Fargo Feature In Top 5 Banks In US That Receive Most Complaints

TCF Bank, a financial institution based in the Midwest, topped the list of banks in the U.S. that received the most number of customer complaints for 2016, an analysis of grievances submitted to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau revealed.

The report published Tuesday by LendEDU, a marketplace for student loans and student loan refinance, looked at the number of complaints per $1 billion in deposits. The analysis found that TCF Bank had 12.3 complaints per billion, the most of any bank for 2016.

“We were surprised that a regional bank led the list in the number of complaints per assets under deposit,” said Nate Matherson, the co-founder and CEO of LendEDU, reportedly said. “We thought for sure Wells Fargo would have been on top of the list, but they weren’t.”

Wells Fargo was fined a total of $185 million by California and federal regulators in September this year for allegedly opening millions of unauthorized accounts for customers in order to meet its aggressive sales goals.

Since 2011, employees had created millions of fake bank and credit card accounts without the customer’s knowledge. This resulted in the bank earning unwarranted fees not to mention employees boosting their sales figures and consequently earning higher pay checks. Wells Fargo confirmed it had fired as many as 5,300 employees in the last few years in relation to these practices.

The San Francisco-based bank made it to the top five worst banks, receiving eight complaints per $1 billion in deposits. The analysis found that most complaints with Wells Fargo — the country’s largest mortgage lender in 2015 — were mortgage-related followed by bank accounts or service.

“Banks get a lot of flack these days, so we thought it would be interesting which got the most flack,” Matherson said.

The following are the top five banks that earned the most complaints per billion in deposits for 2016:

1. TCF National Bank - 12.3 complaints

2. Citigroup - 8.58 complaints

3. Wells Fargo – 8 complaints

4. SunTrust Banks - 7.67 complaints

5. Bank of America - 7.24 complaints

Several banks, however, had issues with the report’s methodology and findings. Financial institutions argued that by setting the size of deposits as the denominator and ignoring other services beyond bank accounts like mortgages and credit cards, the results are manipulated to favor smaller institutions.

“We disagree with the methodology of this study as the analysis does not factor in the types of transaction accounts and the mix of retail versus commercial accounts between the different financial institutions,” a spokesman for TCF said. “The analysis inflates the ratio of complaints for a bank like TCF which has a higher number of transaction accounts relative to peers with similar deposit sizes, and most also have a higher concentration of commercial deposits than we do.”

A spokesman for Wells Fargo said: “We take all customer feedback seriously and work with each customer to resolve their concerns in a way that meets their needs and takes into account their unique circumstances.”

The report also found a dozen banks that received no complaints in 2016. All 12 banks are regional lenders, including SVB Financial Group (Silicon Valley Bank), Texas Capital Bancshares Inc. and Bank of the Ozarks Inc.