Wells Fargo CEO's promise: We will 'fix everything that was broken'
Wells Fargo's (NYSE: WFC) board hears shareholder concerns and is pledging to fix itself, the bank's executives told CNBC after a rowdy annual meeting on Tuesday.
Chairman Stephen Sanger said that while shareholders have liked what Wells Fargo's board has done to address issues regarding the bank's sales practices, investors wish the board jumped on the issue sooner.
Wells Fargo has been trying to make amends in the wake of a scandal in which employees opened about 2 million accounts for customers without their consent. The bank fired more than 5,000 employees, paid $185 million in fines and forced top executives to give back millions in salary.
Investors re-elected all directors nominated at Tuesday's meeting, but longer-tenured members received fewer votes than their newer colleagues. Sanger only received 56 percent support, while post-scandal CEO Tim Sloan received 99 percent support.
Sanger said on CNBC's "Power Lunch," however, that shareholders weren't sending a message to any particular director.
"They were voting to send a message to the board, and we clearly got that message that we need to resolve these problems and continue to make Wells Fargo a better bank," Sanger said.
Sloan who was appointed CEO when longtime executive John Stumpf retired in the fallout of the debacle, said the board hears the message that shareholders are sending.
"We're going to be very responsive, not only at the board level, but also at the management level to make sure that we fix everything that was broken and build a better Wells Fargo — and we're doing that every day," Sloan said.
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