Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf said he has "no preconceived notions about what size our company should be" and that he is considering "additional changes" to the bank's business model.
That assessment came in written testimony for his scheduled appearance in front of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee Tuesday. He will attempt to convince a skeptical Congress that the bank is on the right track, despite the existence of "shortcomings" it needs to address.
Congress has been one of the sharpest critics of the bank's practices; two previous Wells CEOs resigned shortly after testimony in which they both received scathing bipartisan critiques. In a $3 billion settlement with the federal government last month, the bank agreed that, from 2002 to 2016, the bank committed a wide swath of sales misconduct, most prominently creating accounts in customers' names without their consent. The bank has struggled to recover from the revelation of the practices, and Scharf was brought on with a charge to fix the bank.
Scharf did not offer details as to how the bank's size, often seen by liberals as an impediment to effective management, would or could change.
'A fresh look'
"In recent years, there have been areas in which we have simplified our business model and exited certain businesses that are not core to our corporate priorities," he said. "I can tell you that I am taking a fresh look at how we operate and what additional changes we need to make."
Scharf, who took the top job at Wells Fargo in October, has made gradual tweaks to the bank in his first months, but most of his time has been spent dealing with regulators.
He brought in his team � most of whom have a connection to his former boss, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon � but has yet to make sweeping changes to the bank. The testimony suggests that, among other things, the size of the country's third largest commercial bank is on the table.
The bank, involved in everything from railcars to credit cards, has spun off some of its wide-ranging lines of business in recent years.
Last year before Scharf arrived, it sold its institutional retirement and trust business, which employed about 800 people in Charlotte, to Iowa-based Principal Financial for $1.2 billion. In 2018, Wells sold off its shareholder services business to a London-based firm.
Last year, Rep. Maxine Waters, chair of the finance panel, criticized Wells Fargo as "too big to manage," a common complaint from some Democrats on the finance panel.
Wells' size and complexity was a complicating factor in the bank's effort to recover from its sales scandal, according to reports released last week by the panel's Democrats and Republicans. The GOP report disagreed, though, that the bank was too big to manage.
Early moves
In the rest of Scharf's testimony, the CEO focused on the challenges the bank still faces and the early changes he's made.
"We have not yet done what is necessary to address our shortcomings," he said. "I took this job because I believe that our country and communities benefit from a strong Wells Fargo. I am confident we can do what is needed to move this company in a significantly improved direction."
So far, Scharf has shaken-up the company's reporting lines, brought in a chief operating officer and ended forced arbitration for sexual harassment claims, among other changes.
Still, Waters said on a call with reporters last week that "less has been done than I would have anticipated at this time."
On Monday, Wells announced that the chair of its board of directors, Elizabeth "Betsy" Duke, had stepped down, along with fellow board member James Quigley. Waters had called for their resignation after last week's congressional reports detailed regulators' concerns about the board's effectiveness in overseeing the bank.
The pair are still scheduled to appear before Waters' panel Wednesday.
