Wells Fargo & Co’s veteran chairman and chief executive officer, John Stumpf, abruptly departed on Wednesday bowing to pressure over its sales tactics that has damaged the bank’s reputation and put Wall Street under renewed scrutiny.
San Francisco-based Wells Fargo said Stumpf, 63, was retiring and would be replaced as chief executive by President and Chief Operating Officer Tim Sloan, 56.
The bank is splitting the role of chairman and CEO with Stephen Sanger, its lead director, becoming chairman.
Stumpf’s exit leaves Sloan with a steep challenge in rebuilding its reputation and overhauling its hard-charging sales culture without gutting profits. The new CEO will also contend with ongoing regulatory investigations and private litigation.
The departure is a stunning reversal of fortune for Stumpf, who successfully navigated Wells through the financial crisis and built it into the world’s most valuable bank with a focus on Main Street-style lending that was the envy of Wall Street.
“I have decided it is best for the company that I step aside,” he said in a statement.
The bank’s shares, which have slumped in the wake of the scandal, rose 2 percent in after-hours trading after the bank announced Stumpf’s exit.
Sloan said his immediate priority was to restore trust in the bank.
Long considered Stumpf’s successor, Sloan has spent most of his career at Wells working with corporations and institutional investors not the retail division, where the fraudulent accounts were opened.
Reuters
