Xinhua/Bao Dandan via Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf has arrived on Capitol Hill to testify in front of the House Financial Services Committee Thursday.
The bank boss was seen in the chamber preparing more than 30 minutes before the scheduled start of the hearing.
This is a developing story. Our preview of Thursday’s hearing is below. Please check back for the latest updates.
Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf will face another round of questioning on Capitol Hill Thursday — this time in a hearing held by the House Financial Services Committee.
Stumpf’s appearance in front of the panel comes a little over a week since he faced blistering questions and a call to resign during a Senate Banking Committee hearing, and as the bank continues to try to stem the sustained criticism it has faced since the alleged wrongdoing was revealed by government regulators on Sept. 8.
Though Stumpf has not resigned, he comes into the hearing on the heels of an announcement that Wells Fargo’s Independent Directors are launching an investigation into allegations that bank employees were opening accounts without customers’ knowledge or permission and that his pay had been frozen.
He will also not receive a bonus, they said, and would forgo receiving some $41 million worth of promised compensation.
The directors also said Carrie Tolstedt, who until July was the head of the division at the heart of the accounts scandal, had left the company and would not be receiving a bonus or severance pay. Her retirement announcement originally had her down to leave at “year’s end.”
ABC News has obtained and reviewed a copy of the remarks that Stumpf has prepared to deliver Thursday before the House panel.
Most notably, the CEO is expected to say that the bank is moving up the date at which it will end its controversial sales goals program. That program, which some regulators have alleged was a driving force behind the employees’ actions, was set to end by Jan. 1, 2017, the bank announced shortly after the scandal erupted.
However, the prepared remarks now say that the bank will end the program on Oct. 1.
Meanwhile, U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez confirmed this week that his agency would be launching “a top-to-bottom review of cases, complaints, or violations concerning Wells Fargo over the last several years.”
The Labor Department announcement follows several lawsuits, including from former employees, customers and shareholders, alleging wrongdoing.
The bank has faced near-constant criticism since Sept. 8, when regulators slapped it with a $185 million fine, saying that employees opened or attempted to open accounts without customers’ authorization.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said at the time: “According to the bank’s own analysis, employees opened more than two million deposit and credit card accounts that may not have been authorized by consumers.”
Some of those accounts generated over $2 million in fees, according to the CFPB, and some 5,300 employees were fired, according to authorities.
In a statement issued when the fine was announced, the company said, “we regret and take responsibility for any instances where customers may have received a product that they did not request.”
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