Gillian Tan, Columnist

Does Wells Fargo's Board Need a Refresh?

Replacing some directors may not speed the bank's recovery from a fake-account scandal, but it can't hurt.

November 16, 2016 at 2:52 PM UTC

Gillian Tan is a senior reporter covering finance and alternative asset classes including real estate, infrastructure, private equity, private credit, venture capital and sports business. She previously wrote an opinion column for Bloomberg and was a reporter at the Wall Street Journal. She is a qualified chartered accountant.

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In the wake of its retail-banking scandal, does Wells Fargo & Co. need a stagecoach filled with new directors?

That's the view of some investors who believe the bank's board may require an overhaul because it was slow to tackle and disclose the practices that led to more than 2 million accounts being opened without customer consent, according to a Reuters report on Tuesday. They're irked by the board's size, directors' outside commitments and fuzziness around their exact responsibilities, as well as the initial response to the situation, which led to a $185 million fine. Perhaps they view a shakeup as a way to protect against future crises and reputational damage, considering how badly brand sentiment has plummeted.