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Wells Fargo Is Eliminating Employee Sales Goals That Led to Fake-Account Scandal

By:
Kaitlin Mulhere
2 min read
Pedestrians pass in front of a Wells Fargo & Co. bank branch in New York, U.S., on Tuesday, July 12, 2016. - Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images
Pedestrians pass in front of a Wells Fargo & Co. bank branch in New York, U.S., on Tuesday, July 12, 2016. Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images

Wells Fargo announced Tuesday morning that it will eliminate all retail sales goals starting in 2017, an attempt to regain some consumer trust after last week's phony account scandal.

Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf said in a statement that the product sales goals would be eliminated to make sure customers know that retail bankers are focused on the customers best interests.

Read More: Lessons from the Wells Fargo Fake-Account Scandal

The announcement comes after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last week fined the bank $185 million for wide-reaching fraud, saying employees opened millions of accounts under customers’ names without permission. A year-plus investigation found that thousands of employees—pushed by sales targets and compensation incentives—found ways to secretly sign up existing customers for new services they'd never asked for. The bank has since fired 5,300 employees.

Stumpf's statement says the elimination of sales goals will be good for customers and for the bank's bottom line.

"The elimination of product sales goals represents another step to reinforce our service culture, helps ensure that nothing gets in the way of our ability to achieve our mission, and is consistent with our commitment to providing a great place to work," the statement reads.

 

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