Hear me out. This may not be the audience for it but hear me out. Is Charlie really that bad?
When he took over I remember nobody wanted to be the CEO of wells and this message board was debating on a weekly basis whether the bank would go under. Think about that. Wells was in such bad shape that people thought it would go under or be broken up.
Fast forward and he’s done exactly what we thought he would do. Come in and chainsaw the thing. He’s made unpopular but correct decisions. For example, when I started literally every wholesale office had a team of underwriters. That’s wildly inefficient. We knew the bank was bloated so he centralized a lot of operational functions. Now the focus is on growing affluent client bases that will allow you to cross sell the correct way.
Instead of pushing accounts or cards on everyday branch customers why not attract high net worth clients who will likely need business or mortgage services.
As for the asset cap, that thing isn’t going anywhere until Liz Warren is unalive. There’s at least a plan to get the risk framework in place that way once she’s gone a case can be made to eliminate the cap. Once that happens, wells is gonna be in a great place.
Again I ask…is he that bad?