Wells Fargo’s Chief Risk Officer Is Leaving After Four Years

(Bloomberg) -- Wells Fargo & Co. Chief Risk Officer Amanda Norton, who joined in 2018 to help turn around the scandal-ravaged lender, is leaving as the cleanup continues. 

Norton, 55, will retire from the bank at the end of June, and a replacement will be named in coming weeks, Wells Fargo told staff in a memo on Tuesday.  

“Strengthening our risk and control infrastructure is our top priority, and Mandy has been central to that effort,” Chief Executive Officer Charlie Scharf wrote in the memo. “She and her team have worked tirelessly and with a great sense of urgency to transform risk management at our company.”

When Norton joined from rival JPMorgan Chase & Co., she replaced Mike Loughlin, Wells Fargo’s longtime risk head who later agreed to pay a $1.25 million penalty to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency over his role in the firm’s scandals. Norton was one of the first outsiders hired directly onto Wells Fargo’s top leadership team, which now consists mostly of executives brought in from other firms. 

Scharf, who joined as CEO in late 2019, has been trying to move Wells Fargo past years of problems that began with the 2016 revelation that employees opened millions of fake accounts to meet sales goals. He’s repeatedly said his top priority is satisfying regulators’ demands, but he’s cautioned that there’s much work left to do and progress “will not follow a straight line.” 

The firm was handed a fresh regulatory sanction in September, the first under Scharf, over its slow pace in addressing certain problems. But there also have been signs of progress, including the expiration of a 2016 regulatory order and the lifting of one from 2015.

“Living through a pandemic teaches you things, and I’ve realized that now is the time to do some things I want and need to do outside of my career,” Norton wrote in a separate memo to risk-management employees Tuesday. There’s still a lot to do, she said, “and I am confident in the deeply talented team we have to continue building on the foundation we’ve put in place.”

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