The wake of the Stumpf debacle has not smoothed over yet, as four Wells Fargo executives have been fired, and their bonuses clawed back. WaPo reports:
The four executives are current or former senior managers of the megabank’s community banking division. They will not receive their 2016 bonuses and will forfeit the stock and stock options they were awarded, Wells Fargo said in a statement.
The terminations are just the latest effort by the San Francisco-based bank to move beyond a scandal that has already led to the departure of longtime chief executive and chairman John G. Stumpf. The over-100-year-old bank has been battered by lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle for a five-year scheme in which thousands of employees, to meet aggressive sales goals, set up sham accounts that customers didn’t request. Wells Fargo admitted that it fired 5,300 employees for the conduct and has eliminated the aggressive goals that some have said drove the behavior.
But the bank has seen the number of customers signing up for new accounts tumble and it continues to face pressure from lawmakers who say the bank needs to do more to rectify the matter. It is unclear whether the board’s unanimous decision to fire four executives will be enough to quiet Wells Fargo’s critics.
It’s not entirely clear to me how important the general consumer business is to Wells Fargo, nor how news of the firings will shine up their image. Perhaps they should consider actually holding discussions on what makes for a responsible banking institution.
Maybe they should start with my Arts Editor’s opinion.
