Charles Scharf

Wells Fargo’s stock took off last year amid signs that Charlie Scharf is making progress in his efforts to turn the lender around.

The product, which will compete against Citi’s Double Cash card, is the first step in CEO Charlie Scharf’s revamp of a business segment that has long trailed top competitors.

CEO Charlie Scharf’s long-awaited expense-reduction plan got a chilly reception from investors.

Fourth-quarter results were hurt by restructuring and customer-remediation charges, but the release of credit-loss reserves and the sale of a student-lending business gave an unexpected boost to net income.

Inside Wells Fargo, managers say they intend to build a more commensurate presence on Wall Street, where the firm ranks a mere ninth in capital markets and deal advisory, by focusing on business lines and industries where it already has credibility.

The bank's release from a five-year-old enforcement action would mark progress in CEO Charlie Scharf's efforts to resolve its sprawling regulatory problems. But 10 more consent orders, including an asset cap imposed by the Federal Reserve in 2018, remain in place.

Wells Fargo is exploring selling a unit offering store-branded credit cards as the bank chooses businesses to keep or break off in a broad strategic overhaul, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Wells Fargo is exploring a sale of its corporate-trust unit that could fetch more than $1 billion and is considering whether to find a buyer for its student loan portfolio, according to people familiar with the matter.

CEO Charlie Scharf disappointed investors by failing to provide either a detailed road map for long-term expense reductions or say when he might release such a plan.

The company posted a surprise increase in third-quarter expenses as it set aside almost $1 billion for customer remediation and $718 million in restructuring charges.

The company has been experimenting with ways to recruit more women and minorities, including a program to hire professionals who had left banking. But CEO Charlie Scharf’s reference to “a very limited pool of Black talent” for important jobs may make it harder for Wells to meet inclusion goals.

Under fire for saying that the potential pool of talent is "limited," CEO Charlie Scharf issued a memo to employees Wednesday acknowledging that his words reflected his own "unconscious bias" and vowing to improve diversity in the bank's leadership.

The bank said the account is geared to consumers who want better control over their spending or are new to banking.

Mike Santomassimo is at least the sixth ex-colleague of CEO Charlie Scharf to join the bank’s leadership team in the last nine months.

Some 3,400 additional staffers in the treasury management group will be required to get pre-clearance before making trades. The policy change was driven in part by increased regulatory scrutiny, the bank said.

The energy sector, retail and hospitality are among the industries that are faring poorly during the pandemic. The bank expects loan losses to remain elevated well into 2021.

Megabanks like JPMorgan Chase boosted loan-loss provisions to record levels in the second quarter in preparation for what could be a wave of loan defaults.

The firm set aside a record $9.5 billion for credit losses, about $4 billion more than analysts had expected, as it braces for a wave of coronavirus-related defaults.

Barry Sommers, a former head of wealth management at the New York bank, is the latest high-level hire by Wells CEO Charlie Scharf.

Even after the Fed eased some limitations in April to promote emergency lending, the bank has had to make some “tough choices” to heed the $1.95 trillion growth ceiling set by regulators in the aftermath of its phony-accounts scandal.