Wells Fargo fires four retail executives over accounts scandal

Wells Fargo has fired its consumer credit solutions head and three other senior managers for actions related to a scandal involving employees creating fraudulent customer accounts.

Wells Fargo sign
A Wells Fargo & Co. sign sits on display outside the company's offices in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Tuesday, April 27, 2010. Wells Fargo & Co., the fourth-largest U.S. bank by assets and deposits, may raise its dividend once capital levels satisfy regulators and if the economic recovery continues, said Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Claudia Russ Anderson, former community bank chief risk officer; Pamela Conboy, a regional president for Arizona; Shelley Freeman, former Los Angeles regional president and now head of consumer credit solutions; and Matthew Raphaelson, head of community bank strategy and initiatives, were all dismissed based on board’s ongoing investigation, the San Francisco-based lender said Tuesday.

None of the executives will receive a bonus for 2016 and will forfeit all of their unvested equity awards and vested outstanding options, the company said.

The bank has faced a barrage of criticism and calls for closer scrutiny since it was fined $185 million by regulators in September for possibly opening more than 2 million retail bank accounts without customer approval. The firm is still the focus of investigations by federal, state and local authorities.

Wells Fargo has said it fired 5,300 retail bank employees in recent years over cross-selling abuses and eliminated sales goals linked by regulators to the strategy.

Bloomberg News
Consumer banking Fraud detection Wells Fargo
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