Wells Scandal Stiffens Resolve to End Board Inertia

Some top institutional investors in Wells  said they had concerns about how directors had dealt with the malpractice, and called for it to claw back bonuses from senior executives. The shareholder scrutiny comes as a Financial Times analysis has found that Wells has one of the longest serving and oldest boards among large US banks, data that is likely to raise further questions about the quality of its corporate governance. Investors have been targeting “male, stale and frail” boards, worrying that entrenched directors are failing to hold management teams accountable.Shareholder concerns about Wells’ culture and governance have risen after regulators said last week that employees trying to meet sales targets may have signed up more than 2m customers for accounts and credit cards without their knowledge. The bank said it had fired about 5,300 employees in response. (FT)