NEW YORK (AP) – Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf plans apologize to Congress and the American public on Tuesday after allegations that bank employees opened millions of unauthorized accounts to meet aggressive sales targets.
The mea culpa comes in prepared testimony for Stumpf’s appearance Tuesday before the Senate Banking Committee. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the prepared remarks, in which Stumpf says he is “deeply sorry” that the bank failed to fulfill its responsibility to customers. He also said he wanted to apologize for “violating the trust” that customers invested in Wells Fargo and not doing more sooner to address the causes of “this unacceptable activity.”
Stumpf had been facing criticism after an interview last week in which he implied that retail banking employees were to blame, and the prepared remarks indicate a significant shift.
“I accept full responsibility for all unethical sales practices in our retail banking business, and 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,” according to the prepared testimony.
California and U.S. regulators fined San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. a combined $185 million last week for allegedly opening millions of bank accounts without customer authorization, moving money into those accounts, and even creating fake email address to sign these customers up for online banking. The consumer banking giant has said it plans to eliminate the sales targets by Jan. 1.
Stumpf is expected to appear twice in front of Congress. The House Financial Services Committee has announced that it plans to conduct an investigation into Wells Fargo’s sales culture, and to have Stumpf testify later this month.