Wells Fargo leader says progress is being made

The CEO of Wells Fargo has communicated with team members nationwide provide updates on the lender’s progress in building a better firm

Wells Fargo leader says progress is being made
The CEO of Wells Fargo has communicated with team members nationwide provide updates on the lender’s progress in building a better firm.

As MPA reported Tuesday, Wells Fargo is reportedly being investigated by the CFPB for another scandal but Tim Sloan says they are making progress.

“In my visits with team members across the country, I continue to admire the resilience demonstrated by our team in a very challenging year and the care you show for our customers,” he said.

He went on to address many of the questions that team members had asked him during those visits.

On the issue of making things right for those customers who may have had an unauthorized account opened in their name, he said that the bank had engaged a third party to conduct a detailed analysis of current and former customers’ accounts to help identify potential harm and the final stage of that analysis is nearly complete.

These efforts, plus others, have resulted in customer refunds or payments to date exceeding $5 million and more will receive checks or account credits in the coming weeks.

There will also be details of how customers can make a claim under the class action lawsuit against the bank.

For those customers that may have faced higher borrowing costs due to the impact on their credit scores, the chief executive said there will be remediation.

He added that steps had been taken to ensure that unacceptable sales practices do not happen again, including:
  • Eliminated product sales goals
  • Introduced new compensation and performance management programs that emphasize customer experience and risk management
  • Changed leadership for the Community Bank
  • Eliminated a layer of management in the Community Bank in order to bring senior management closer to our customers
  • Strengthened oversight and risk controls
  • Began the roll out of transformational changes to processes, coaching and customer interaction to take customer experience to a new level
Mr Sloan also reiterated that there is likely to be a higher volume of accounts involved than first thought and that the bank’s reviews will “generate news headlines.”