Wells Fargo in talks to hire Harvey Schwartz as its next CEO
Members of Wells Fargo’s board are in talks with Harvey Schwartz, the former president and co-chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs, to take over as the bank’s next chief executive, The Post has learned.
Schwartz — who last year lost a race against David Solomon to succeed Lloyd Blankfein as Goldman’s CEO — is in discussions with the nation’s third-biggest bank to take the reins from Tim Sloan, according to two people briefed on the talks.
The 53-year-old banker is up against one other serious contender for the top job whose identity couldn’t immediately be learned, according to one source close to the situation. Nevertheless, it’s not clear whether Schwartz will take the helm of the San Francisco-based bank.
“The issue is that he does not want to move to Charlotte or San Francisco,” one source said, noting that Wells Fargo’s East Coast headquarters is in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Schwartz also is thinking about starting a family investment office with Pablo Salame, the former co-head of Goldman Sachs’ securities division who also left last year after Solomon took the helm, according to the source.
Schwartz’s non-compete agreement with Goldman Sachs recently lapsed, and he is free to pursue other jobs, according to a source familiar with the situation.
Neither Schwartz nor Salame could immediately be reached for comment on Thursday.
“There’s no validity to any rumors that Wells Fargo is in talks with anyone,” said Arati Randolph, a spokeswoman for the bank, declining to comment specifically about Schwartz.
Randolph reiterated a statement from Wells chairwoman Betsy Duke in September, saying “CEO Tim Sloan has the unanimous support of the board, and this support has never wavered.”
That statement had been made in response to The Post’s exclusive report that board members of the bank had reached out to another Goldman alum — former White House economic adviser Gary Cohn.
“Wells Fargo has an enormous affinity for Goldman people,” one prominent Wall Street CEO told The Post. “Gary Cohn was all teed up to be the next CEO and he turned them down.”
The talks with Schwartz are still ongoing and could still fall apart, one person said.
Pressure has been rising on Wells Fargo to turn the company around, as investigators uncover more alleged wrongdoing across the bank, stemming from the company’s aggressive sales culture.
Last week, Sloan got hauled onto Capitol Hill for a grilling by the House Financial Services Committee over Wells Fargo’s slew of scandals, which began three years ago when it was revealed it had set up millions of unauthorized customer accounts to pad its bottom line.
Hours later, Wells Fargo received a rare, stinging rebuke from one of its primary federal regulators, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
“We continue to be disappointed with Wells Fargo N.A.’s performance under our consent orders and its inability to execute effective corporate governance and a successful risk management program,” the regulator wrote in a memo sent to reporters.
Likewise, the Federal Reserve last week expressed disapproval after Wells Fargo’s board gave Sloan a 5 percent pay raise for 2018.
“The Federal Reserve does not approve pay packages. We expect boards of directors to hold management accountable,” a Fed spokesperson said in an emailed statement.