Wells Fargo & Co has separated the roles of chairman and CEO of the bank. It has accordingly changed its bylaws. This follows complaints about sales abuses in its branches that led to a national scam in the US. So far, John Stumpf has been holding both the positions at the bank. He had stepped down in October under pressure from lawmakers. Tim Sloan was then promoted as CEO, while Stephen Sanger became non-executive chairman. Sanger said formalizing this structure is the right decision at this time, and added that efforts to restore the trust of its customers and team members are well underway and will continue until the bank has fully addressed the issues surrounding retail banking sales practices. At present, only Citigroup has a separate chairman and a CEO. The bank has faced criticism after agreeing in September to pay $185 million over claims that employees may have opened more than 2 million unauthorized accounts for customer.
