The CEO of financial giant Wells Fargo, Timothy Sloan, is expected to appear alone before the House Financial Services Committee so it can scrutinize the bank’s recent abuse scandals, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
Sloan would appear before the panel on March 12, and he would be the first bank head to appear after the new members of Congress convene with Democrats having gained control of the House. He’s also scheduled to testify on April 10 with other chiefs from JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
The April hearing would be the first time all the bank heads have testified together since the financial crisis, and while the appearances are being coordinated, no official invitations have gone out as of yet.
The panel’s chairperson, Maxine Waters (D., Calif.), has promised to look into the banking sector.
State Street and Bank of New York Mellon, which are known as custodian banks, are probably going to be at the second hearing. Other banks originally complained that custodian banks weren’t going to participate.
On Jan. 15, Sloan said that a U.S. Federal Reserve asset cap on Wells Fargo will last all year instead of through the first half. Sloan was disclosing Q4 2018 earnings, and Wells Fargo also reported single-digit gains in credit and debit cards.
The bank, trying to restore trust among consumers and commercial clients, said full-year 2018 revenue decreased about 2.3 percent to $86.4 billion. Fourth-quarter revenue came in at about $21 billion, a decline of approximately 5 percent, and short of analyst expectations. During the fourth quarter, so did profit per share ($1.21 versus $1.16). The FI’s Q4 profit was $6.1 billion, down about 1.6 percent year over year.
The bank also reported general purpose credit card point-of-sale (POS) purchase volume of $20.2 billion in the fourth quarter, up 5 percent year over year. Debit card POS purchase volume, meanwhile, reached $89.8 billion in the fourth quarter, up 8 percent year over year.
We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors.
Learn More