WFC Wells Fargo and Company

By Allison Prang and Colin Kellaher 

Wells Fargo & Co. has named Charles Scharf -- Bank of New York Mellon Corp.'s chairman and chief executive -- its new CEO, six months after the bank's previous chief executive stepped down.

Wells Fargo said Mr. Scharf will join as president, CEO and a member of the board on Oct. 21, succeeding C. Allen Parker. Mr. Parker, the bank's general counsel, has served as CEO on an interim basis since Timothy Sloan resigned in late March.

Wells shares rose 2.9% in premarket trading.

Mr. Sloan took over for John Stumpf, who resigned from the CEO job three years ago in the wake of Wells Fargo's sales practices scandal, when the bank found that millions of "potentially unauthorized" accounts had been created.

In naming Mr. Scharf its new CEO, Wells taps a new leader with experience in the industry, but someone who isn't a Wells insider. Naming a new permanent chief could mark a fresh start for the bank, which has been struggling to revamp its image since its sales practice scandal.

Mr. Scharf has worked as Bank of New York Mellon's CEO since July 2017 and formerly led credit-card company Visa Inc. Upon joining Bank of New York Mellon, Mr. Scharf laid off staff, revamped the firm's executive pay and consolidated office space. He commonly showed up to work wearing black jeans.

One big roadblock Mr. Scharf already faces at Wells is a growth cap from the Federal Reserve. The regulator has prohibited Wells from exceeding its $1.95 trillion in assets. Mr. Sloan has said in the past that Wells was preparing to be subject to that limit through the rest of this year

Dave Sebastian contributed to this article.

Write to Allison Prang at allison.prang@wsj.com and Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 27, 2019 08:36 ET (12:36 GMT)

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