Until Tuesday, the bank had said only that Ms. Tolstedt retired.
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The executive touted Wells Fargo’s success at cross-selling in a dozen calls with investors, said Warren.
Other lawmakers said bank employees have told them they feared for their jobs if they didn’t meet quotas, that managers sometimes required them to work Saturday phone banks if they were coming up short, and that they begged friends and relatives to open accounts.
She asked Stumpf if he knew how much he personally made as Wells Fargo’s stock price soared during these years.
In his testimony before the Committee on Tuesday, Stumpf-who has worked for Wells Fargo for 35 years-did not attempt to pass the blame.
Wells Fargo has always been known for its aggressive sales goals, but the details and the $185 million fine that regulators imposed last week have singed the consumer banking giant’s reputation as a well-run, tightly managed company removed from the reckless conduct on Wall Street that stoked the financial crisis.
The senator from OH also urged Wells Fargo to investigate whether such accounts had been opened before 2011 and make any affected customers whole for those years.
Twitter users saw Warren put Stumpf on blast. The bank makes every account opener agree to settle any legal issues with the bank in arbitration rather than go to court.
-Wells Fargo is expanding its review of customer accounts to 2009 and 2010.
Warren went on to decry Stumpf for his bank’s reputation for cross-selling and explained Wells Fargo’s rationale for pushing their employees to pressure existing customers into opening new bank accounts. Some 5,300 Wells Fargo employees have been fired.
“Wells measures cross-selling by the number of different accounts the customer has with Wells”. Though chairman of the board, Stumpf said he is not part of that discussion, which is being handled by a compensation committee. Clinton said in a letter to Wells Fargo customers Tuesday that the bank’s conduct was “outrageous.” Sen. But his words do not match his actions. Sen.
Not surprisingly, one of the most dramatic confrontations involved Democrat Elizabeth Warren, known for harsh rhetoric about big banks.
“You should resign. You should give back the money you took while this scam was going on, and you should be criminally investigated”, she said.
Stumpf noted it was a good question, but called the matter a “problem of focus and not of size”.
Stumpf said “No”, and Warren wouldn’t even let him finish his sentence.
Sen. Warren wasn’t the only senator who voiced anger and frustration over the Wells Fargo scandal (although she was certainly the most fired up). “Okay, so you haven’t resigned, you haven’t returned a single nickel of your personal earnings, you haven’t fired a single senior executive”. Mr. Stumpf praised her lavishly in a news release at the time, calling her “a trusted colleague and dear friend”. Warren’s cross-examination was particularly tense, as the senator had to repeat her questions three or four times before they were answered to her satisfaction.
Wells Fargo’s chief executive faced a grilling from lawmakers today during a Senate hearing questioning the bank’s aggressive sales culture that led to a $185 million settlement in Southern California.
They also challenged assertions that he and other Wells Fargo senior executives didn’t become aware of the problems until 2013 – when the sales misconduct was reported by The Los Angeles Times.
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Based on that, Warren criticized the CEO for repeatedly saying hi will be accountable for the damages and yet, not being held responsible. Instead, evidently, your definition of “accountable” is to push the blame on your low level employees that don’t have a fancy PR firm to defend themselves. “This is gutless leadership”.
