San Francisco Business Times/Mark Calvey: Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan steps down

San Francisco Business Times
Breaking
Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan steps down


Banking & Financial Services
Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan steps down

   

Wells Fargo veteran Tim Sloan stepped down immediately as CEO, president and a board member of the San Francisco-based bank.
Enlarge

Wells Fargo veteran Tim Sloan stepped down immediately as CEO, president and a board member of the San Francisco-based bank.

Spencer A Brown
By Mark Calvey
Senior Reporter, San Francisco Business Times
Mar 28, 2019, 1:31pm PDT
Updated 5 hours ago

Wells Fargo said Thursday that Tim Sloan will retire at the end of June, but is stepping down immediately as CEO, president and board member.

The board named General Counsel Allen Parker as interim CEO and president, while the bank begins a search for a permanent CEO. In a dramatic move for a bank that has long promoted from within, Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) said its next CEO will come from outside the bank.

Sloan’s departure after more than 30 years with the bank marks the end of an era for the San Francisco-based bank that’s been rocked by a series of scandals that first came to light in 2016.

“Tim Sloan has served this company with pride and dedication for more than 31 years, including in his role as CEO since October 2016. He has worked tirelessly over this period for all of our stakeholders in the best long-term interest of Wells Fargo. His decision, and today’s announcement, reflect that commitment and his belief that a new CEO at this time will best position the company for success,” Wells Fargo Board Chair Betsy Duke said in a statement.

Sloan said that he thought the time was right to hand over the reins.

“I am very proud of what we have accomplished together. In my time as CEO, I have focused on leading a process to address past issues and to rebuild trust,” Sloan said in a statement. “We have made progress in many areas and, while there remains more work to be done, I am confident in our leadership team and optimistic about the future of Wells Fargo."

Sloan added that it's become clear to him that the bank will “benefit from a new CEO and fresh perspectives."

Parker, 64, joined Wells Fargo as general counsel in March 2017. He was previously presiding partner at the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore from January 2013 until December 2016.

“In my two years at Wells Fargo, I have been deeply impressed with the commitment of our 259,000 team members to move this great company forward and to build an even stronger foundation for the future,” Parker said in a statement. “I am fully committed to this role as we continue the important work at hand in support of all our stakeholders, particularly our customers, and prepare for a smooth and effective transition to a permanent CEO.”

Long-time observers of the bank have seen the toll that Wells Fargo’s woes have taken on Sloan. He got into a public fight with the state of California’s then Treasurer John Chiang, who was running for governor at the time. At times, there was tension between Sloan and members of the media.

This month, Sloan looked tired and stressed in addressing a congressional hearing on the bank’s progress in recovering from scandals that included opening millions of accounts not authorized by customers as employees sought to meet ambitious sales goals.

But this week, Sloan appeared at the Bank Policy Institute’s Fintech Ideas Festival in San Francisco, where he discussed the outlook for a world without computer passwords and actually joked with PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) CEO Dan Schulman and others in the audience on a variety of topics.

There was no mention of Wells Fargo’s problems during the program except for a brief introduction that called Sloan the busiest man in banking.

Earlier Thursday, Warren Buffett voiced his support for Tim Sloan. Buffett is CEO of Wells Fargo’s largest shareholder, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B).

“I’m very empathetic to anybody who walks into a big problem at a very, very, very large and politically sensitive institution,” Buffett told CNBC, recalling his days of stepping in and leading investment bank Salomon Brothers as it sought to recover from a major scandal.

But today’s change in leadership at Wells was increasingly anticipated.

“We are not surprised by today’s announcement as numerous potential candidates for the CEO position have been floated in the press,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Gerard Cassidy told clients. Most recently, former Goldman Sachs President Harvey Schwartz reportedly was approached by Wells Fargo board members about the job.

“Ongoing congressional opprobrium and heightened regulatory scrutiny has made Sloan’s position at the company increasingly tenuous, in our view,” Cassidy said. “We had expected that an eventual change in leadership was a likely outcome as the company seeks to distance itself from its sales-practice issues.”
Companies In This Article

Berkshire Hathaway Insurance Group

Omaha, NE

Insurance

See full profile

Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP

New York, NY

See full profile

Rbc Capital Markets, LLC

New York, NY

See full profile

Wells Fargo & Co.

San Francisco, CA

Banking

$86B Revenue

262K Employees

See full profile
2 of 3  Articles Remaining
To continue   Create a FREE account or Sign in
Related Content
Wells Fargo reportedly hunting for an outside CEO
Wells Fargo reportedly hunting for an outside CEO
Wells Fargo unveils annual meeting location, CEO pay raise
Wells Fargo unveils annual meeting location, CEO pay raise
Warren Buffett discusses ‘disaster’ contributing to Bay Area exodus
Warren Buffett discusses ‘disaster’ contributing to Bay Area exodus
Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan hits back at critics
Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan hits back at critics
More in Banking & Financial Services
More
In a memo to his cabinet, the President Donald Trump directed the Treasury and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to develop a plan that would bring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac out of conservatorship and increase private competition in mortgage finance. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
Trump eschews unilateral action on Fannie and Freddie

Financial Times
The New York Stock Exchange building on Wall Street in Manhattan. The more than 300 U.S. companies that have plans to go public are aiming to raise nearly $50 billion, according to Bloomberg data, and Goldman Sachs has predicted that the overall amount of money raised through listings could hit a record $80 billion in 2019.
Wall Street readies for IPO boom as ‘unicorns’ stampede to market

Financial Times
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2018. Wall Street is braced for an “earnings recession” as analysts’ consensus forecast is for net profit margins to contract by 40 basis points in 2019, to 10.9 per cent, according to Goldman Sachs. (John Taggart/The New York Times)
Wall Street braced for ‘earnings recession’ as margins fall

Financial Times
San Francisco-based Wells Fargo is reportedly considering an outside candidate to succeed CEO Tim Sloan. Wells said there's "no validity" to such talk.
Wells Fargo reportedly hunting for an outside CEO

By Mark Calvey
Anu Shultes, CEO of LendUp.
Hot in Oakland: These fintechs call the East Bay city home

By Mark Calvey
The List
50 Transactions
50 Largest Greater Bay Area Mergers and Acquisitions
This List includes M&A d…

More Lists
“We want to address the issue that we have the highest tax rate in the United States. We’re not naive about that,” Gov. Newsom said.
Gov. Newsom says Trump investment program could help California

By Ted Andersen
McGlashan reportedly wrote to board members that he was “deeply sorry this very difficult situation may interfere with the work to which I have devoted my life.”
Amid college admissions scandal, TPG fires McGlashan, allows investors

By Hannah Norman
John DeCero, president and CEO of Mechanics Bank, had a lot to smile about as the bank agreed to buy most of Rabobank's California operations.
Mechanics Bank nearly triples in size with huge deal

By Mark Calvey
Latest Companies On The Move
More
Architecture & Planning
MVE + Partners
Expansion

Award-winning architecture, planning, interior design, and graphics firm MVE + Partners, which is celebrating its 45th anniversary this year, is proud...
Insurance
InterWest Insurance Services, LLC
Acquisition

InterWest Insurance Services, www.iwins.com, proudly announces the acquisition of Placer Insurance Agency in Roseville, California, their 11th office ...
Technology
Mentor Technical Group International LLC
New Company

Mentor Technical Group’s Open House happened this past January 31st, 2019. We officially opened our office and Metrology laboratory to service the reg...
Back to Top

    San Francisco Business Times

    User Agreement   |   Privacy Policy
    Your California Privacy Rights   |   Ad Choices

© 2019 American City Business Journals. All rights reserved. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated 5/24/18) and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement (updated 5/24/18). The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of American City Business Journals.