Wells Fargo’s board of directors canceled a $15 million bonus it had awarded to former CEO Tim Sloan, the bank said in a proxy filing.
The bank said Sloan received no severance benefits or annual incentive award last year after resigning under pressure from regulators, who had criticized his handling of the bank's consumer banking scandals.
The bank's compensation committee has the discretion “to forfeit or cancel all or any unpaid portion of the award based on Mr. Sloan’s role and responsibility for the company’s progress in resolving outstanding regulatory matters,” the $1.9 trillion-asset bank said in the filing, which was dated Monday.
In addition to the company's performance, the Wells board said it had considered “the status of the company’s risk management objectives and outstanding regulatory matters" in making the decision.
Sloan served as CEO of Wells from 2016 to 2019 and succeeded former Chairman and CEO John Stumpf, who had resigned in October 2016 following revelations that bank employees opened millions of potentially unauthorized customer accounts.
Wells had previously clawed back $75 million in compensation given to Stumpf and the bank's former head of community banking, Carrie Tolstedt. Those clawbacks — a forced return of pay and stock grants — were the largest in both banking history and corporate America.
Wells Fargo's former leaders continue to face scrutiny.
Last week, House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters, D-Calif., asked the Department of Justice to consider bringing criminal charges against Sloan for making what she claims were inaccurate and misleading comments during his congressional testimony last year.
Sloan told lawmakers that Wells was in compliance with provisions of a consent order from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. But the OCC said that Wells was not actually in compliance with one of two portions of remediation plans for customers who had paid for unnecessary auto insurance.
In January, the OCC announced a settlement with Stumpf, who agreed to pay a $17.5 million penalty and to be banned from the banking industry. Tolstedt is facing civil charges that the OCC hopes will result in a $25 million civil money penalty and a ban from the banking industry.
