Wells Fargo CEO Sloan to Apologize, Explain Bank's Accountability in Congressional Hearing--Testimony

By Andrew Ackerman and Emily Glazer 

Wells Fargo & Co. Chief Executive Timothy Sloan is expected to apologize for the bank's phony account scandal Tuesday and tell Senate lawmakers that his firm has rehired about 1,800 employees who left over shortcomings with its sales practices, according to written testimony reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

"I apologize for the damage done to all the people who work and bank at this important American institution," Mr. Sloan is expected to tell the Senate Banking Committee.

Regulators last year fined Wells Fargo $185 million for "widespread illegal" sales practices that included opening as many as two million deposit and credit-card accounts without customers' knowledge. A broader review by the company has since revealed the number is potentially 3.5 million accounts, and uncovered abuses in the bank's auto-lending business.

Mr. Sloan is set to testify a few weeks short of his first anniversary in the bank's top job; he assumed the CEO's role last October after former CEO John Stumpf abruptly retired in the wake of congressional hearings immediately after sales-practices scandal emerged.

Mr. Sloan is expected to tell lawmakers the company has rehired more than 1,780 employees who left the company during the years of lofty sales goals. The settlement of the sales practices last year revealed that Wells Fargo over a five-year period had fired 5,300 employees for what it said was improper behavior. The rehired people weren't from that group of dismissed employees, though.

Write to Andrew Ackerman at [e-mail] and Emily Glazer at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 02, 2017 12:35 ET (16:35 GMT)

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