Betsy Duke resigns as Wells Fargo chairmain

Bloomberg

Betsy Duke stepped down as chair of Wells Fargo & Co. ahead of a dramatic congressional hearing set for this week examining the board’s role in the bank’s scandals.
Democrats atop the House Financial Services Committee made no secret of their intent to target Duke and other past and current leaders, issuing a scathing report last week on the bank’s interactions with regulators.
On Monday morning, Wells Fargo said Duke had resigned, replaced by Charles Noski. James Quigley will also leave the bank’s board.
Duke, 67, who had been the most senior woman in US finance, will have her chance to address the criticism. She and Quigley are scheduled to testify to the panel of lawmakers, whose bipartisan lashings already helped prompt two previous chief executive officers to step down.
“Since we were made aware of the egregious harms suffered by Wells Fargo’s customers, we were and remain fiercely determined to do right by them and to strengthen the bank’s culture and controls,” Duke and Quigley said in a statement on Monday. “We believe that our decision will facilitate the bank’s and the new CEO’s ability to turn the page.”
The hearings begin on Tuesday with an appearance by CEO Charlie Scharf, less than five months into his tenure. The panel will seek his thoughts on next steps for what it calls “the bank that broke America’s trust.”
Duke, who had been on the board since 2015, and Quigley, who joined in 2013, will appear Wednesday. They will be grilled on “the role of the board of directors in the bank’s egregious pattern of consumer abuses.”
“Duke and Quigley failed in their responsibility as board members,” House committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters told journalists last week.
, saying she planned to call for their resignations.