Wells Fargo & Co., operator of the Wachovia Bank and Wells Fargo Advisors network in Connecticut, spent $1 million during the first quarter to lobby the government on a broad range of financial regulatory reform measures, The Associated Press Reports.
Wells Fargo’s $1 million spent on lobbying during the first three months of the year is 46 percent more than the $700,000 the San Francisco-based bank spent during the year-ago period. The bank spent $820,000 lobbying the government during the final quarter of 2009.
The bank lobbied Congress and the Treasury and Agriculture Departments during 2010’s first quarter.
Wells Fargo lobbied the government about regulations tied to fees on credit and debit cards, overdraft fees, regulating derivatives, potential bank taxes, mortgage lending, small business loans and crop insurance.
Congress is currently discussing many of those issues as part of a wide-ranging overhaul of the financial sector as it tries to institute new measures to protect consumers and avoid a repeat of the credit crisis of late 2008 that helped push the country into recession.
