Wells Fargo CEO says ‘solid first quarter results’

CEO Charlie Scharf commented, “Our solid first quarter results demonstrate the progress we continue to make to improve and diversify our financial performance. The investments we are making across the franchise contributed to higher revenue versus the fourth quarter as an increase in noninterest income more than offset an expected decline in net interest income. Net charge-offs were stable from the fourth quarter as credit trends remained consistent with recent performance, and we repurchased $6.1 billion of common stock while maintaining a strong capital position. We reached an important milestone in the first quarter when the OCC announced the termination of a consent order it issued in 2016 regarding sales practices misconduct. The closure of this order is an important step forward and is confirmation that we operate much differently today around sales practices. It is the sixth enforcement action against Wells Fargo that our regulators have closed since 2019. The remaining risk and control work continues to be our top priority and we will not be satisfied until all work is complete. We remain committed to improving our efficiency while we also invest in both core infrastructure and new products and services to better serve our customers. In the first quarter we continued to enhance our credit card offerings with the introduction of Autograph JourneySM, which is designed for frequent travelers. Our new products continued to drive strong spend on our cards, and our investments in talent and technology in the Corporate and Investment Banking businesses helped drive fee-based growth.”