Wells Fargo reshuffles board, adds three new members

Wells Fargo board of directors has elected three new members, the latest step in a reshuffling that grew out of the company’s fraudulent sales scandal.

The new directors will be: Celeste Clark, a former executive at the food manufacturer Kellogg Co.; Theodore Craver Jr., former CEO of the electric utility Edison International; and Maria Morris, a former executive at the insurer MetLife Inc.

They will join Wells Fargo’s board on Jan. 1, the San Francisco bank said Wednesday in a press release.

Elizabeth Duke, former governor of the Federal Reserve and current member of Wells Fargo’s board.
Elizabeth Duke, governor of the U.S. Federal Reserve, testifies to the Housing and Community Opportunity Subcommittee about mortgage and foreclosure servicing in Washington, D.C., U.S., Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010. U.S. House lawmakers criticized the Obama administration's program to prevent foreclosures as a Treasury Department official testified that the initiative has reduced monthly mortgage payments for almost 520,000 homeowners. Photographer: Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg *** Local Caption *** Elizabeth Duke
Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg

The new appointments follow an announcement in August that Vice Chair Elizabeth Duke would become chair at the start of next year. Wells Fargo also said at the time that Chair Stephen Sanger and longtime directors Cynthia Milligan and Susan Swenson would retire from the board at the end of 2017, and that up to three new independent directors would be appointed.

“The board’s composition has changed significantly as it remains focused on being responsive to shareholders, enhancing oversight and creating value for shareholders,” Duke said in Wednesday’s press release.

Wells Fargo has been facing pressure to shake up a board that failed to head off a reputation-scarring scandal. In September 2016, the $1.9 trillion-asset bank agreed to pay $190 million to settle charges that employees created more than 2 million seemingly unauthorized customer accounts.

Its troubles have only grown since then, as the bank has acknowledged charging improper fees to certain mortgage borrowers and charging car loan customers for insurance coverage they didn't need. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is currently weighing an enforcement action against Wells Fargo related to problems in its mortgage and auto insurance operations, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

At Wells Fargo’s annual meeting last April, four directors were reelected with less than 60% of the vote. Two of them — Sanger and Milligan —are scheduled depart the board at the end of the year. The other two — Enrique Hernandez Jr., and Federico Peña — are still members of the board.

After Jan. 1, six of the board’s 15 nonexecutive members will have joined since the scandal broke a little over a year ago.

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