Looks like Tim Sloan’s week is looking up. On Tuesday, the Wells Fargo CEO received a brutal lashing from Congress during a four-hour hearing before the House Financial Services Committee, during which he was raked over the coals for the bank’s numerous misdeeds.
But just a day later, Wells Fargo’s board of directors gave Sloan a 5% raise, increasing his total pay to a whopping $18.4 million for his “continued leadership on the company’s top priority of rebuilding trust,” according to a letter to shareholders.
Part of the raise includes what the board dubbed an “annual incentive award” of $2 million – essentially a bonus, perhaps for taking the heat for the company from an enraged Congress.
According to the Washington Post, Sloan’s salary is now 283 times the median pay awarded to the more than 200,000 employees who work at the bank.
But it’s also less than many other CEOs in the financial world. JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon made $31 million last year, while Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan earned $26.5 million and Citigroup’s Michael Corbat took home $24 million, the Post reported.
The timing of Sloan’s raise is likely no coincidence, as Congress would have roasted him thoroughly over his salary had it been made public ahead of the hearing.
Sloan, who has worked for Wells Fargo for 30 years, rose to the role of CEO two years ago with the task of cleaning up the tarnished bank’s reputation, solving its corrosive culture problem and putting checks in place to stop further abuses.
While Sloan testified before Congress that the bank has made significant headway on this front – even going so far as to say the problems had been "fixed" – some members of the House remained skeptical of the bank’s ability to reform, with several alleging that it was simply too big to manage.
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, was among those who were unimpressed, later calling Sloan's testimony “disappointing” and suggesting that he be removed from his role.
News of Sloan’s raise appeared to incense Waters further, as she released the following statement Thursday:
“Given Wells Fargo’s continuing failures, it is outrageous and wholly inappropriate that the bank has rewarded Mr. Sloan with a $2 million bonus for 2018, a year in which federal regulators and authorities capped the bank’s growth and fined the bank more than $3 billion for offenses such as improperly charging customers auto insurance and mortgage fees…Mr. Sloan shouldn’t be getting a bonus, he should be shown the door.”
