Wells Fargo CEO to apologize to Congress

NEW YORK — Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf plans to apologize to Congress and the American public todayafter allegations that bank employees opened millions of unauthorized accounts to meet aggressive sales targets.

The mea culpa comes in prepared testimony for Stumpf's appearance today before the Senate Banking Committee. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the prepared remarks, in which Stumpf says he is “deeply sorry” that the bank failed to fulfill its responsibility to customers.

Stumpf had been facing criticism after an interview last week in which he implied that retail banking employees were to blame, and the prepared remarks indicate a significant shift.

“I accept full responsibility for all unethical sales practices in our retail banking business, and I am fully committed to doing everything possible to fix this issue, strengthen our culture, and take the necessary actions to restore our customers' trust,” according to the prepared testimony.

California and U.S. regulators fined San Franciscobased Wells Fargo & Co. a combined $185 million last week for allegedly opening millions of bank accounts without customer authorization, moving money into those accounts, and even creating fake email address to sign these customers up for online banking.

The consumer banking giant has said it plans to eliminate the sales targets by Jan. 1.