The letter, sent Friday to Stumpf, requests a response prior to a September 20 hearing before the Senate Banking Committee at which Stumpf is expected to testify.
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Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking member of the powerful House Oversight committee, has also requested Wells Fargo turn over documents about its sales tactics and other material.
The panel did not rule out subpoenas to compel testimony if required.
In a letter to Wells Fargo general counsel James M. Strother, Hensarling said that “the committee is very concerned by these serious allegations”. An additional $35 million penalty goes to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and another $50 million to the City and County of Los Angeles.
“Mr. Stumpf appeared to lay blame for the problems with the employees involved [rather] than with any flaw in Wells Fargo’s systems or culture”.
This post updated at 12:21 pm.
A top executive, Carrie Tolstedt, who ran the consumer banking division, in July announced her retirement from the bank this year.
Banking giant Wells Fargo recently fired 5,300 employees, nearly 2 percent of its workforce, for a massive fraud scheme.
More than 2 million fraudulent accounts, including debit and credit cards, were opened in customers’ names without their knowledge.
All told, Wells Fargo paid a total of $185 million in fines but didn’t admit any wrongdoing.
Sen. Bob Menendez continued his calls for greater accountability after Wells Fargo was fined $185 million for allegedly illegally opening unauthorized accounts for its customers.
The House committee is also looking into how the CFPB and OCC handled the investigation into the bank.
Cross-selling was also stated among the reasons for Tolstedt’s bonuses that totaled nearly $7 million over the five years (on top of her $1.7 million salary and more than $5 million a year in equity incentives).
Wells Fargo fired 5,300 workers over the matter and said it would eliminate sales goals regulators linked to its practice of cross-selling products. The Bureau determined that this may be the result of a high-pressure sales environment at the bank that pushed the employees to show fake sales numbers and reach the sales target.
“The people who we’re talking about here weren’t the high performers”, Wells Fargo Chief Financial Officer John Shrewsberry said at a recent conference. Debit cards were issued and activated, as well as PINs created, without telling customers.
Prior to these settlements, Wells Fargo completed an extensive review by a third-party consulting firm going back into 2011.
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“The financial crisis that began in 2008 underscored potential weaknesses in the practices of large, inter-connected financial institutions such as Wells Fargo”, reads the support statement on one of the resolutions.
