Just when the images of Too-Big-To-Fail Bank CEOs facing faux-angry (but impotent under lobbying fees) politicians had moved to the back of the mind, Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf will visit Capitol Hill to explain to the Senate Banking why he is “deeply sorry” about the massive and systemic fraud his bank visited upon Americans, and why he “accepts full responsibility” but will not resign (because he really owes it to the company to stay around and fix this mess).
As we previewed earlier, today at 10am, the US public will be treated to the latest Congressional kangaroo court, when Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf will tell the Senate Banking Committee that he is “deeply sorry”, and accepts “full responsibility†for unethical sales practices in its retail banking business while apologizing for “not doing more sooner†to address the cause of such behavior.
That said, he will not resign, nor will he propose clawing back any of his pay or that of “sandbagger”-in-chief Carrie Tolstedt’s $125 million parting cash award, as some Democratic senators have suggested. What Stumpf will do, according to his prepared remarks to be delivered today, Stumpf will say there was “no orchestrated effort or scheme†by the bank to encourage problematic sales practices.
“I am deeply sorry that we failed to fulfill our responsibility to our customers, to our team members and to the American public,â€Â Stumpf said in the prepared remarks. “I accept full responsibility for all unethical sales practices in our retail banking business. 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.”
Stumpf is scheduled to deliver the testimony two weeks after popular anger erupted at the bank which agreed to pay a $185 million fine after regulators found it had opened about two million deposit and credit-card accounts without customers’ consent. Wells Fargo said it fired 5,300 employees over the sales practices during a five-year period ended in March of this year. A House panel is also expected to hold a hearing later this month.
