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Wells Fargo Hires Outsider to Run Western Branches After Scandal

Wells Fargo Hires Outsider to Run Western Branches After Scandal

(Bloomberg) -- Wells Fargo & Co. named Steve Troutner head of the community bank’s U.S. Western region, one of the unit’s most senior outside hires since a scandal over bogus accounts erupted more than two years ago.

He joins in February and will report to Mary Mack, head of Wells Fargo’s community bank and consumer-lending division, according to an internal memo reviewed by Bloomberg. He was most recently chief executive officer of the Emily Program, which treats eating disorders, and has worked at Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and Wachovia, the bank Wells Fargo acquired in 2008.

Troutner is the most senior outside hire to focus solely on Wells Fargo’s community bank following sales scandals that erupted in 2016. Andrew Rowe joined from Bank of America in 2017 to lead consumer segments, a position that straddles the community bank and consumer lending. Troutner joins amid ongoing fallout from employees’ creation of as many as 3.5 million phony accounts. Federal agencies are still investigating the unit, and about three dozen district managers were fired in December for sales-practice issues.

Troutner replaces Lisa Stevens, who retired last year after 29 years at the firm. She was a top executive in the community bank in 2016 when the fake accounts came to light, and kept her title through changes in the unit. In a report on the scandal released by Wells Fargo’s board in 2017, Stevens is described as having pushed for changes in the community bank.

To contact the reporter on this story: Hannah Levitt in New York at hlevitt@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael J. Moore at mmoore55@bloomberg.net, Dan Reichl, David Scheer

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