Wells Fargo chief executive John Stumpf steps down

Wells Fargo's embattled chief executive, John G. Stumpf, is stepping down immediately, the company announced on Thursday (AEDT).

Wells has been under fire for a long-running scandal in which employees set up unauthorised accounts to meet sales quotas. 

The bank said Mr Stumpf would be replaced by Timothy J. Sloan, its president and chief operating officer. Just two days earlier, the San Francisco bank shuffled its top management to give more responsibility to Mr Sloan.

Stumpf earlier agreed to forfeit at least $US41 million in pay and he vowed that his bank will drop its sales incentive program, blamed for prompting bankers to set up illegal and un-authorised bank and credit card accounts to meet their sales goals  by the end of the week, not in January, as he had previously promised.

"I am grateful for the opportunity to have led Wells Fargo," he said in a written statement. "While I have been deeply committed and focused on managing the company through this period, I have decided it is best for the company that I step aside."

The New York Times