Wells Fargo speeds up plans to end sales goals

Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf said Thursday that the bank is accelerating plans to eliminate all product sales goals for retail bankers three months ahead of schedule.

Stumpf, who is back in the hot seat on Capitol Hill, told the House Financial Services Committee that the bank will drop the program at the end of this week, ahead of the Jan. 1 date initially announced earlier this month. 

{mosads}He told the House panel that he takes full responsibility and deeply regrets what happened.

The bank said it is taking steps to reassure congressional lawmakers and its customers that Wells is taking action to improve practices after getting hit with a $185 million fine after employees may have potentially opened more than 2 million unauthorized accounts.

The Senate Banking Committee grilled Stumpf last week about the culture the bank created that prompted more than 5,000 employees to open fake accounts without customers’ permission.

Last week, Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, whose agency levied a record $100 million penalty on the bank, told the banking panel that employees faced “excruciatingly high pressure” to meet sales goals.

Cordray called the bank’s missteps a “fraud on a massive scale and a staggering breach of trust to inflate sales numbers.”