Wells Fargo spends $1.29 million during 2nd quarter lobbying on financial regulatory reform

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Wells Fargo spent $1.29M lobbying government in 2Q

NEW YORK — Wells Fargo & Co. spent $1.29 million during the second quarter to lobby the government on a broad range of financial regulatory reform measures, according to a disclosure report

That’s an 87 percent leap from the $690,000 the San Francisco-based bank spent during the year-ago period. For the first six months of the year, Wells Fargo spent $2.31 million on lobbying as banking regulations came to the forefront of the national agenda.

Wells Fargo received $25 billion in federal bailout funds during the financial crisis in late 2008, which it paid back in December. Its lobbying expenditures for the first half of the year were fourth biggest among the top 10 banks that received money under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

Wells Fargo lobbied the government about regulations tied to reform of the banking system following the economic meltdown; fees on credit and debit cards, overdraft regulations, mortgage reform and the creation of a consumer financial protection agency.

Other issues Wells Fargo raised with legislators and regulators included various tax proposals related to banking, small business lending and crop insurance, , according to the report filed on July 20 with the House clerk’s office. The bank lobbied Congress and the Treasury and Agriculture Departments during the April-to-June period.

President Barack Obama signed the financial regulatory overhaul in July, which put in place new rules on a variety of banking operations, after months of debate on the reforms.