stumpf

Wells Fargo CEO Stumpf retires with $134M

John Stumpf, the embattled CEO of Wells Fargo (WFC), unexpectedly retired from the company on Wednesday effective immediately.

Stumpf’s move comes just weeks after he was grilled by two congressional panels over the way the bank handled an alleged scam where upwards of 2 million accounts were created by employees without the knowledge of customers. The accounts were allegedly opened so thousands of employees could meet aggressive sales goals set by management. Stumpf was widely criticized for the way he handled the questioning, pushing the blame to lower-level employees and not holding upper-level executives, including himself, responsible.

While Stumpf doesn’t receive a special retirement payout, executive-pay tracker Equilar estimates he’ll walk with $134.1 million. The package remains that large even after Stumpf last month agreed to a $41 million clawback following a grilling he received from the Senate Banking Committee reprimanding him for not taking responsibility. He agreed to give up unvested stock, but still owns shares vested in previous years.

While Stumpf walks with millions, the fraud has been much costlier for the bank’s once-stellar reputation and for those who hold Wells Fargo stock. Investors have lost $23.1 billion in market value as the shares have fallen nearly 10% from when the scandal broke. Wells Fargo was formerly the most valuable U.S. bank but has since fallen behind JPMorgan Chase (JPM).

Full report here…

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