If Wells Fargo’s board had hoped John G. Stumpf’s resignation on Wednesday and the appointment of Timothy J. Sloan as the new top executive would instantly quell the bank’s numerous critics, they were mistaken, the <em>New York Times</em> reported today. Within hours of the announcement, a member of Congress and other critics were already dismissing Sloan as the wrong man to make the big changes the bank needs to move past its current predicament over the creation of as many as two million phony accounts. While the Wells Fargo board emphasized that Sloan was “ready to lead the company into the future,” the bank’s critics focused on the role that Sloan — who has spent the last 29 years at Wells Fargo — played in the bank’s troubling past. “I remain concerned that incoming C.E.O. Tim Sloan is also culpable in the recent scandal, serving in a central role in the chain of command that ought to have stopped this misconduct from happening,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.).
