Wells Fargo gets new wirehouse leadership amid executive shuffle

Wells Fargo, which has been under a regulatory microscope following a series of scandals, has shuffled several executives from its consumer banking and wealth management units into new roles.

Interim CEO Allen Parker said in a press release Wednesday that the latest personnel moves will help the bank to meet the expectations of its regulators.

David Kowach Wells Fargo executive 2019 photo

One of the changes involves the creation of a new high-level role in Wells Fargo’s consumer banking unit, which is headed by Mary Mack.

David Kowach, who formerly headed Wells Fargo Advisors, the bank’s retail brokerage arm, is becoming the head of community banking. He will report to Mack.

Several other executives who previously reported to Mack — including the heads of regional banking in the Eastern and Western U.S. — will now report to Kowach.

“David’s experience running Wells Fargo Advisors — one of Wells Fargo’s most distributed, regulated and customer-centric organizations — will help us move community banking forward as we continue our transformation,” Mack said in the press release.

Meanwhile, Wells Fargo Advisors will be headed by Jim Hays, who has been with the bank for 14 years and most recently headed its private wealth financial advisors group. Prior to that, Hays oversaw the wirehouse's private client group and wealth brokerage services.

In leading Wells Fargo Advisors, Hays will be tasked with tackling the unit's advisor attrition. The wirehouse reported having 13,799 brokers at the end of the second quarter, down 427 from the year-ago period, or a 3% loss. Headcount is also down 1,287 since the third quarter of 2016 when a fake accounts scandal rocked Wells Fargo. It had 15,086 advisors at the time.

Wells also announced the creation of a new role overseeing the bank’s enterprise customer excellence team. The job will be filled by Andy Rowe, who previously served in another role in the consumer banking division.

In his new position, Rowe will lead teams that deal with conduct management, complaint management and customer remediation. He will also report to Mack.

This article originally appeared in American Banker.
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Career moves Consumer banking Wealth management Compliance Wirehouses Wells Fargo Wells Fargo Advisors
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