Wells Fargo & Co. marketed a risky securities-lending program as safe and cost institutional investors millions of dollars in losses, a lawyer said at the start of a trial, one of at least five against Wells Fargo over its securities lending, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. “Securities lending was represented by Wells Fargo to be a minimal or no-risk investment,” Mike Ciresi, a lawyer for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota and 11 other plaintiffs, said today in his opening statement in federal court in St. Paul. The suits were brought in Minnesota, where Wells Fargo’s securities-lending program was located.
