Editorial: Toledo’s flawed partner

Toledo and Fifth Third Bank are linked by the wonderful downtown ballpark where the Mud Hens play 71 normally well-attended games every season.

Unfortunately, Fifth Third has tarnished the connection with shameful business practices that prompted a $20 million fine from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

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The Cincinnati-based bank must refund insurance fees they forced on 35,000 car loan customers, who already had coverage. The extra expense enriching Fifth Third caused 1,000 of its customers to have their cars repossessed.

Sadly, that scam is not the only fraud Fifth Third must atone for. To meet sales quotas to cross market multiple products, thousands of customers were signed up without their consent or knowledge for fake accounts.

It happened while Wall Street paid a premium for bank stocks showing a bigger commercial footprint with its customers. Fifth Third joins the list of infamy of banks that boosted their stock value with fictitious numbers of fake customers.

Wells Fargo shareholders got a billion dollar settlement from the beleaguered bank where fake accounts were first discovered. Fifth Third’s fine and restitution is likely only the start of its costs for crossing the line to pad corporate profits.

The CFPB is seeking a court order against Fifth Third that would ban sales quotas because they incentivize fraud.

If market forces work a court order should not be needed, shareholders will forcefully make that point with Fifth Third management.

The goodwill Fifth Third assumes with the naming rights of Toledo’s award winning baseball park evaporates when the city and the Mud Hens are connected to corporate misbehavior.

When FirstEnergy’s bribery admission created a backlash against their name on Cleveland’s lakefront football stadium, the naming rights agreement with the Browns was ended early to spare each party embarrassment.

If Fifth Third doesn’t straighten up and make business ethics a priority, its name on any stadium will bring the public relations risk of being known as the house that fraud built.