Wells Fargo & Co has today named banking veteran Charles Scharf as chief executive officer, the lender's third CEO since a wide-ranging sales scandal erupted three years ago.
Scharf will take over from interim CEO Allen Parker, who was thrust into the position in March when former CEO Tim Sloan resigned abruptly.
Tim Sloan had said increased pressure from politicians and regulators had become a distraction in running the scandal-plagued bank.
Charles Scharf will take charge at a time when the bank is under a regulatory microscope and is working at rebuilding its tarnished reputation following the scandal.
Internal and regulatory probes since the scandal have uncovered other issues in each of the bank's primary businesses, resulting in billions of dollars in fines, penalties and an unprecedented cap on its balance sheet by the Federal Reserve.
Wells Fargo's board has been shuffled many times since the scandal. More than half of the company's independent directors joined the board after 2016.
Most recently, Scharf was the CEO at Bank of New York Mellon. Before joining the regional bank he held the top job at Visa, the world's largest payment network.
Scharf started his career at Commercial Credit Corp in 1987, a consumer finance company run by Jamie Dimon and Sandy Weill - who went on to lead two of America's biggest banks.
He was named Dimon's assistant six months into the job at Commercial Credit, according to an alumni magazine for the NYU stern business school.
Scharf will start in his new role next month, Well Fargo said in a statement.
The lender's board had considered keeping Parker in the job permanently even after saying they would seek an outsider to fill the role, sources had told Reuters in June.
