Wells Fargo CEO takes aim at newspaper editorial

From staff reports

The CEO of Wells Fargo & Co. fired back at a recent editorial in The Des Moines Register with his own commentary, emphasizing the bank’s commitment to rebuilding public trust.

CEO Tim Sloan submitted the piece to the newspaper after it said not enough had been done to hold the bank accountable for setting up unauthorized customer accounts and engaging in other questionable sales practices.

The piece by the newspaper’s editorial board started with this strong statement:

“If corporations truly were people, the person known as Wells Fargo would be behind bars.”

Sloan wrote that he editorial board “revealed how little it knows about the people who make up today’s Wells Fargo” and went on to defend the bank’s efforts to rebuild credibility and improve its culture.

“It’s my top priority because I know how committed our Wells Fargo team members are to our customers. We all want to restore the trust we lost because of a former high-pressure sales culture that led to unacceptable sales practices by some of our retail bankers. The result of that former sales pressure: Some of our customers wound up with products and services they did not want or ask for,” Sloan wrote, adding he had met with the newspaper previously to talk about the bank’s efforts.

“At the time of my visit with The Register, our efforts to rebuild trust were in their early stages. However, Wells Fargo has made significant progress since then — progress largely ignored by The Register’s recent editorial.”

To read the rest of his rebuttal, click here.

Wells Fargo employs 2,750 people in Sioux Falls.

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Wells Fargo CEO takes aim at newspaper editorial

The CEO of Wells Fargo & Co. fired back at a recent editorial in The Des Moines Register with his own commentary, emphasizing the bank’s commitment to rebuilding public trust.

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