Wells Fargo denies it asked Gary Cohn to replace chief Tim Sloan

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CEO and President of Wells Fargo & Company Timothy Sloan testifies during a hearing before Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee October 3, 2017 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

Wells Fargo fired back at a report that the bank had approached former Goldman Sachs executive Gary Cohn about potentially replacing Chief Executive Officer Tim Sloan.

“Rumors that Wells Fargo’s board of directors reached out to potential CEO candidates are completely false,” Betsy Duke, chair of the lender’s board of directors, said in a statement. “CEO Tim Sloan has the unanimous support of the board, and this support has never wavered. In his two years as CEO, Tim has driven significant transformational change at Wells Fargo, which is benefiting all stakeholders.”

Wells Fargo, the third biggest U.S. bank, has yet to shake a scandal that emerged two years ago when it announced it was firing employees for creating fake accounts under a high-pressure sales culture. After disclosing that the bank opened millions of unauthorized bank and credit-card accounts, other abuses were revealed, from bogus charges on pet insurance to the improper handling of wealth management and commercial clients.

Cohn, an ex-Goldman Sachs president who left the Trump administration in March after helping pass the U.S. tax overhaul, wasn’t interested in joining Wells Fargo, according to the New York Post article. The Wells Fargo directors who approached Cohn may have done so as individuals instead of acting in an official board capacity, the newspaper said. When approached by a reporter, Cohn denied being in active talks with Wells Fargo, the Post said.