Wells Fargo shoots down report about replacing CEO Sloan

Wells Fargo said Chief Executive Tim Sloan has the full support of its board following a report that directors had reached out to Goldman Sachs' former chief financial officer for his job.

The New York Post reported Thursday that members of the bank's board are in talks with Harvey Schwartz to take over as CEO, citing unidentified people. The bank reiterated the statement of support for Sloan that it gave last year, when the Post said the board was talking with former Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn.

"Rumors that Wells Fargo's board of directors reached out to potential CEO candidates are completely false," Betsy Duke, the bank's chair, said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg. "Tim Sloan has the unanimous support of the board, and this support has never wavered."

Scandals at Wells Fargo erupted in 2016 on the revelation that bank employees opened millions of potentially fake accounts to meet sales goals. Problems have since emerged in all business lines, prompting the Federal Reserve to ban Wells Fargo from growing assets beyond their end-of-2017 level until the bank cleans up to the regulator's satisfaction.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who is running for president, is among U.S. lawmakers demanding Sloan's ouster. Sloan appeared before a House committee last week to detail efforts he's taken to root out and fix past problems and prevent new ones. He received sharp criticism from both sides of the aisle over his handling of the scandals.