The reason for that, the senators claimed, citing media reports, is that “dozens of former and current Wells Fargo employees have come forward to describe the lengths they went to in order to meet the bank’s aggressive sales quotas”, and, “When quotas weren’t met, employees faced threats of termination; mandated hours of unpaid overtime; harassment; and other forms of retaliation”.
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The announcement comes just days after Stumpf appeared before a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Wells Fargo’s sales practices and the roughly 2 million accounts the bank opened without customer authorization.
Wells Fargo & Co chief executive officer John Stumpf resigned from the Federal Reserve’s Federal Advisory Council as USA lawmakers stepped up pressure after revelations that the bank’s employees had opened two million allegedly bogus client accounts.
Stumpf has left his position as a representative for the Twelfth District on the Federal Advisory Council, the San Francisco Fed said Thursday.
A Wells Fargo spokeswoman said the bank prides itself on “creating a positive environment for our team members, including market competitive compensation, career-development opportunities, a broad array of benefits, and a strong offering of work-life programs”.
Wells Fargo & Co., which is based in San Francisco, was fined $185 million by USA and California regulators earlier this month. Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat who has emerged as Congress’s leading critic of Wells Fargo. Stumpf testified in front of the Senate Finance Committee yesterday.
Wells Fargo has fired 5,300 employees since 2011 who were involved with the fake accounts. Stumpf’s second term would have ended at the end of this year.
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Stumpf also faced pressure from U.S. politicians who wrote to the San Francisco Fed urging it not to reappoint him to a third one-year term. The targets were high even in small towns.
