Turns out, Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan feels more comfortable sniping back when he’s sitting in a Senate hearing room.
Responding to a previous statement from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., that he should be fired — while at the same time defending a 35 percent raise that took his total compensation last year to $17.6 million even as fallout continued from consumer-business scandals — Sloan said Thursday he took exception to the Senate Banking Committee member’s comments, according to Reuters.
“It’s no surprise I disagree with almost everything Elizabeth Warren says,” Sloan was quoted as saying. “Most of her comments are both ill-informed and inappropriate.”
Warren, who had posted on a comment on Twitter earlier Thursday asserting that executives of banks that cheat their customers deserve jail time, not raises, wasted little time in responding.
Sloan’s company is getting “sanctioned by regulators left and right,” she tweeted, implying that the CEO wanted praise for not getting a cash bonus along with his raise. ”
And then she doubled down on her earlier critique: “You should be fired, not rewarded.”
Dear Tim Sloan: @WellsFargo is getting sanctioned by regulators left and right. You already made 291x more than your average employee. Now you’re getting a $4.6 million raise and want praise because you’re not getting a bonus on top? You should be fired, not rewarded. https://t.co/Vr6rBG94xO
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 15, 2018
Wells Fargo shares have tumbled 6.3 percent this year to $56.83, compared with a surge at rival banks, as fallout has continued from the bank’s September 2016 settlement over the creation of more than 3 million phony customer accounts by workers trying to earn bonuses.
In February, the Federal Reserve capped Wells Fargo’s assets at the $2 trillion it held at the end of last year until executives demonstrate an improvement in corporate oversight.
The bank has nonetheless made significant changes since Sloan took over for John Stumpf, who abruptly retired amid the fake accounts scandal. Wells Fargo has overhauled the pay structure in its large community banking division, split the roles of chairman and chief executive officer, and cut incentive pay for the former CEO.
Analysts at debt-ratings firm Moody’s noted those shifts when they maintained Wells Fargo’s credit score of A2, midway between the highest grade and junk, but they still cut the company’s outlook to negative from stable on Feb. 6.
“The operational effectiveness of Wells Fargo’s governance and risk-management changes is mostly untested,” Allen Tischler and M. Celina Vansetti-Hutchins wrote.
