Elizabeth Warren tells the new Wells Fargo CEO he should be fired, too
"At best, you were incompetent. At worst, you were complicit."
You may recall the prominent role Sen. Elizabeth Warren played last year shining a light on Wells Fargo’s fake account scandal, which resulted in the resignation of the banking giant’s CEO, John Stumpf.
Shortly after Stumpf’s resignation, Wells Fargo appointed Tim Sloan, a 30-year veteran at the bank, as their new CEO. And following in his predecessor’s footstep, Sloan made the trip to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to face more ruthless questions from the Senate banking committee — Warren included — about Wells Fargo’s still-unfolding scandal.
In an increasingly contentious exchange, Warren chronicled Sloan’s past statements about the sales practices at Wells Fargo and accused him of either encouraging or being complicit in the company’s high-pressure culture.
Sloan insisted he had made “fundamental changes” to address the expanding scandal, in which at least 3.5 million unauthorized accounts were opened for customers without their consent between 2009 and 2016. But Warren said every board member who served during that time should be removed.
“Mr. Sloan, you say you’ve been making changes at Wells Fargo for 30 years, but you enabled this fake account scam, you got rich off it, and then you tried to cover it up,” said the Massachusetts senator.
“At best, you were incompetent,” she continued. “At worst, you were complicit. And either way, you should be fired.”
In response, Sloan said that the Wells Fargo board should be given credit for making an independent investigation public and for taking “very strong action in terms of executive accountability.”
An expanded internal review revealed in August that the number of fake accounts opened was around 3.5 million, rather than the 2.1 million that was originally estimated last year. Wells Fargo fired 5,300 mostly low-level workers over the practice. In February, the company also fired four senior managers.
Sloan told Warren on Tuesday that he didn’t think he should have to go as well, though he admitted to making “mistakes.”
“I certainly haven’t been perfect, but I think having that knowledge of the company — having the ability to make the change, the actions that I’ve taken since I’ve become CEO 11 months ago — have made fundamental change at this company,” he said. “So I’m not afraid to make hard decisions when it’s needed.”
Warren, however, got the last word.
“Are you kidding?” she asked, reiterating her view that Sloan’s tenure at the bank is evidence he was complicit in creating a “broken culture.”
“Wells Fargo is not going to change with you in charge,” she said.
