The financial PR failures that taught banks the most fall into four groups: tone-deaf statements and fees, misconduct that leadership defended, data and market operations that failed in public, and collapses where reassurance made things worse. This guide covers 12 cases from Goldman Sachs in 2009 to Credit Suisse in 2023, with sourced facts and the lesson in each. Where a case rests on allegations, the text says so.
Last updated November 1, 2026. For related reading, see financial PR, financial services communications and crisis communications.
Which financial PR failures came from tone and customer anger?
Three failures started with a statement or a fee that customers read as contempt.
1. Goldman Sachs, "doing God's work," 2009
Goldman's chief executive turned a defense of bonuses into a symbol. Lloyd Blankfein told The Sunday Times in November 2009 that he was just a banker "doing God's work," according to FTI Consulting's account, a year after Lehman's collapse. Goldman had set aside $16.7 billion for pay so far that year, and about a week later it announced $500 million to help small businesses while Blankfein said "We apologize," per a summary of the New York Times report.
Lesson: a joke about moral purpose lands badly when the audience is angry about pay.
2. Bank of America, the $5 debit fee, 2011
A fee announcement turned into a customer revolt. Bank of America announced a $5 monthly debit card fee on September 30, 2011, and CEO Brian Moynihan defended it on CNBC in early October, WFAE reported. A petition by 22-year-old Molly Katchpole gathered more than 300,000 signatures, and the bank scrapped the fee on November 1 after JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo dropped their own tests, the Associated Press reported. The bank said it had rolled the fee out based on internal customer surveys and that "customer sentiment changed."
Lesson: a fee that follows a bailout-era reputation needs testing in the market, not only in surveys.
3. JPMorgan, #AskJPM, 2013
A Twitter Q&A with a vice chairman was canceled before it started. JPMorgan promoted a November 14, 2013 session with Jimmy Lee under the hashtag #AskJPM, and the feed filled with insults the day before, so a spokesman said the event was a "bad idea," Reuters reported. One analysis estimated that at least two-thirds of about 80,000 tweets were negative, per Inforrm.
Lesson: an open hashtag invites the criticism a bank already has, so check the public mood before launching one.
Which financial PR failures came from misconduct and culture?
Three failures show how the response to misconduct became its own story.
4. Barclays, the Libor fine, 2012
Barclays paid £290 million on June 27, 2012 for manipulating interbank rates, including a record £59.5 million fine from the Financial Services Authority, and its chief executive apologized and waived his bonus, ITV reported. Bob Diamond resigned on July 3, and Parliament's Treasury Committee later said his evidence was "unforthcoming and highly selective" and that the board had presided over a deeply flawed culture, per Bloomberg's report. Chairman Marcus Agius and the chief operating officer also left.
Lesson: an apology followed by selective testimony makes the second story worse than the first.
5. Wells Fargo, the fake accounts scandal, 2016
Wells Fargo's sales culture became a national story. Regulators fined it $185 million in September 2016 over about two million unauthorized accounts, and the bank fired about 5,300 employees, according to TMJ4. CEO John Stumpf told the Senate he accepted full responsibility, Al Jazeera reported, and he resigned on October 12. In February 2018 the Federal Reserve capped the bank's total assets, the first time it had done so to a financial institution, per WRAL.
Lesson: accepting responsibility in testimony does not end the story if the incentives behind it remain.
6. Wells Fargo, the "fake interviews" allegations, 2022
A new report revived the old reputation. The New York Times reported in May 2022 that seven current and former employees said they were told to interview diverse candidates for jobs already promised to others, and one former executive said he was fired after objecting, Fox LA summarized. Wells Fargo said it could not corroborate the claims and does not tolerate such conduct. These are allegations, and the bank disputed them.
Lesson: a bank with a history of staged numbers is judged against that history when a new allegation arrives.
Which financial PR failures came from data and market operations?
Three cases show how disclosure and explanation decide the outcome after an operational failure.
7. Equifax, the 2017 data breach
Equifax disclosed in September 2017 a breach affecting about 147 million consumers, and its stock fell 35%, CBS News reported. The FTC said the company failed to patch a vulnerability it was alerted to in March 2017, and the company noticed red flags in late July but waited until September to tell the public, American Banker reported. In July 2019 it agreed to pay up to $700 million, per the CFPB, and its chief executive left.
Lesson: the gap between knowing and telling is the part regulators and the public remember.
8. Capital One, the 2019 breach
Capital One confirmed a breach on July 19, 2019 and disclosed it on July 29, affecting about 106 million people, Security.org reported. The OCC fined the bank $80 million in August 2020 but said it positively considered the bank's notification and remediation, and the bank agreed to a $190 million class action settlement while denying liability, Banking Dive reported. CEO Richard Fairbank had called the bank one of the most cloud-forward companies in the world before the breach, per the same article.
Lesson: fast notice earns credit with regulators but does not remove the penalty for the control failure.
9. Robinhood, the GameStop restrictions, 2021
Robinhood blocked buying of GameStop and about a dozen other stocks on January 28, 2021, and CEO Vlad Tenev told Congress on February 18 that a clearinghouse margin call of about $3 billion drove the decision, S&P Global reported. The company raised $3.4 billion in early February, and Tenev told lawmakers, "I'm sorry, and I apologize," Law&Crime reported.
Lesson: a technical reason is not a message, so explain the cause in plain language while it is happening.
Which financial PR failures came from collapses?
Three collapses show how reassurance and offhand answers can speed a run.
10. FTX, "FTX is fine," 2022
FTX had a $32 billion valuation at the start of the week it failed. Founder Sam Bankman-Fried said "FTX is fine" days before the collapse and tweeted that FTX US users were fine on November 10, The Block reported. FTX filed for Chapter 11 on November 11 after $6 billion in withdrawal requests over three days, Fortune reported. Bankman-Fried was convicted in November 2023 and sentenced to 25 years in March 2024, per EBSCO.
Lesson: a reassurance that later proves false turns a liquidity problem into a fraud story.
11. Silicon Valley Bank, "stay calm," 2023
SVB announced on March 8, 2023 a $1.8 billion bond-sale loss and a plan to raise $2.25 billion, and the next day depositors tried to withdraw $42 billion, Fortune reported. Venture firms including Founders Fund advised startups to pull cash, and CEO Greg Becker held a call asking clients to "stay calm," Bloomberg reported. Regulators took control on March 10, per Axios.
Lesson: when depositors talk to each other faster than the bank can, a call asking for calm can read as a warning.
12. Credit Suisse, "absolutely not," 2023
A shareholder's answer on television moved a bank's stock. On March 15, 2023 Saudi National Bank chairman Ammar Al Khudairy told Bloomberg the answer was "absolutely not" when asked about more funding, and Credit Suisse shares fell over 30% at one point, Swissinfo reported. Hours later the Swiss National Bank agreed to lend up to 50 billion francs, and UBS agreed on March 19 to buy Credit Suisse for almost $3.25 billion, per Fortune. He later resigned for personal reasons.
Lesson: a major shareholder's answer to a funding question is a market event, so prepare for the question and the way it can be heard.
What do the financial PR failures share?
The cases share three patterns. The first is tone, as with Goldman, Bank of America and JPMorgan, where a statement or fee read as contempt. The second is delay and selectivity, as with Barclays, Wells Fargo and Equifax, where the gap between what was known and what was said became the story. The third is reassurance under pressure, as with FTX, SVB and Credit Suisse, where words meant to calm a market moved it. The Capital One case shows the other side: prompt notice earned credit but not immunity. Many figures come from news reports and court or regulatory filings, so check original filings before relying on a number.
A financial communications team should rehearse the three moments these cases share: the first statement, the disclosure decision and the answer to a funding question.
