Wells Fargo splits chairman, CEO roles after sales scandal

NEW YORK – Wells Fargo is splitting the jobs of chairman and CEO and making other major changes to the composition of its board of directors in an effort to make the bank more accountable following a scandal over sales practices.

The bank said Thursday it was amending its corporate bylaws to require that separate people fill the job of chairman and the job of CEO. The chairman and vice chairman will have to be independent directors, the bank said.

Wells’ previous chief executive, John Stumpf, held both the CEO and chairman jobs before he abruptly retired in October. Stumpf was replaced by Tim Sloan, and Stephen Sanger is Wells’ chairman.

The San Francisco-based bank has said employees may have opened up to 2 million customer accounts fraudulently to meet ambitious sales goals.