Wells Fargo Fires Executive For How He Communicated With A Former Colleague

"The dismissal was the result of Codel’s acting in a manner that was contrary to the company’s policies and expectations," the company said.

Another senior executive has left Wells Fargo. But this time it's over how he communicated with a former colleague, the bank said, not for anything having to do with its various business practices that have drawn the ire of consumers, regulators, and lawmakers.

Franklin Codel, head of Wells Fargo's consumer lending business, "has been dismissed from the company, effective immediately" the company announced on Friday, for "acting in a manner that was contrary to the company’s policies and expectations of its senior leaders during a communication he had with a former team member regarding that team member’s earlier termination."

Wells Fargo spokesperson Tom Goyda declined to provide any further information about the communication itself that led to Codel's termination, or identify the person he communicated with.

Codel had been at Wells Fargo since 1993 and oversaw a consumer lending business that employs about 45,000 people and works 14 with million households.

"The dismissal also did not pertain to sales practices at the company," the statement said.

Wells Fargo has been caught in a web of controversies over its business practices in its retail business that led CEO John Stumpf and Carrie Tolstedt, the company’s head of community banking, to leave company last year.

Employees had opened about 3.5 million "potentially unauthorized" accounts to satisfy sales quotas. Then the company said this year that 570,000 of its customers would receive $80 million in compensation and reimbursements for purchasing auto insurance they did not necessarily need or ask for. The New York Times reported that over 800,000 customers were charged by Wells Fargo for insurance.

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