Wells Fargo's community banking exec leaving with millions in options
The Wells Fargo executive in charge of the unit where employees allegedly opened unauthorized accounts is walking away from the bank with tens of millions of dollars in stock and options.
The bank in July announced the departure of Carrie Tolstedt, former head of community banking, saying she made the decision to "retire at year's end after a long and successful career."
According to a Wells Fargo proxy statement, she is entitled to about $95 million in accumulated stock and options over her career, based on when the stock was trading around $49 per share last week.
Fortune magazine reported the value at $124.6 million.
Mary Eshet, spokeswoman for Wells Fargo, told CNBC that Tolstedt was not available for comment.
Officials announced last week that Wells Fargo will pay $185 million in penalties and $5 million to customers for opening fee-generating accounts without authorization. Over a five-year period, 5,300 Wells Fargo employees were fired over the practice cited by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, CNBC confirmed with Wells Fargo.
While Fortune noted that Tolstedt's involvement in the alleged behavior is not immediately clear, the magazine reported that she ran the related division "during the entire period in which the customer abuse was alleged, which goes back to 2011."
A Wells Fargo spokeswoman on Monday declined to comment to CNBC on Tolstedt's compensation.
The spokeswoman said that Wells Fargo's internal controls and monitoring identified the behavior in the division, which led to the termination of involved staff. She also said that leaders in the community bank worked to "significantly strengthen [Wells Fargo's] training, monitoring, oversight and compensation structure, which led to a reduction in this behavior."
Wells Fargo said last week, "We regret and take responsibility for any instances where customers may have received a product that they did not request." The bank also said it will be instituting a number of measures to address related problems including sending customers a confirmation email or letter after opening a deposit account or applying for a credit card.
The spokeswoman told CNBC that Wells Fargo believes that the changes it has made will help prevent this behavior in the future and that "the vast majority of our team members serve our customers' best interests every day in every interaction."
Correction: This story was revised to correct that Carrie Tolstedt is to receive about $95 million in accumulated stock and options over her career, based on the value of the stock when it was trading around $49 per share last week.