Wells Fargo’s new CEO apologizes

Bank employees addressed amid scandal, legal issues

NEW YORK — Newly appointed Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan told employees Tuesday that he is “sorry for the pain” that the bank’s employees have suffered as a result of the company’s sales practices scandal.

Sloan’s company-wide speech given Tuesday is the latest effort by Wells Fargo’s executives to atone for the fact that the bank’s employees, pushed to the limit by impossible sales goals, opened as many as 2 million bank and credit card accounts without customers’ authorization.

In the speech, Sloan acknowledged that the bank did not respond to problems in its branches soon enough and upper management dodged responsibility for bad behavior and wrongly placed blamed on its branch employees.

Wells Fargo is enveloped in the biggest scandal in its 164-year history, which earlier this month forced the abrupt retirement this month of its CEO, John Stumpf. The bank faces several class action lawsuits.

There are also concerns that customers are leaving the bank, or at least paring back their business with Wells. In its quarterly earnings report released this month, Wells reported double-digit percentage drops in bank account openings as well as declines in bank branch traffic.

While Wells Fargo has been apologetic to the media, its customers and livid politicians for its behavior, the bank had done little to make amends with its roughly 260,000 employees. While the sales scandal made headlines, the outrage grew after Stumpf did media interviews in which he seemed to blame employees, who often earn less than $15 an hour.