Why Wells Fargo's Ex-CEO Gave $100,000 to Jeb Bush PAC

Dick Kovacevich wants to see some bank regulations reversed, especially a Dodd-Frank rule requiring lenders to determine that potential borrowers can repay loans.

Richard Kovacevich, chairman of Wells Fargo & Co., speaks during a meeting in New York, U.S., on Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2007. Kovacevich said he expects the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates today and guide the economy through 2008 without a recession. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg News

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By Max Abelson

July 31, 2015 at 8:30 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Dick Kovacevich doesn’t think his money buys him favors from Jeb Bush. What matters to the former head of Wells Fargo & Co., the most valuable U.S. bank, is having the chance to sway the Republican presidential candidate on financial regulation and other issues that matter to him.

“You can’t buy anybody,” Kovacevich, 71, said Friday, after a Federal Election Commission filing showed he gave Bush’s Right to Rise super-PAC $100,000 in January. “The way you influence a politician is to convince them that a particular policy you think is good is going to improve the economy or solve other problems.”