Wells Fargo is the latest bank to join Wall Street's retreat from diversity, equity and inclusion efforts as DEI comes under fire from President Donald Trump's administration.
The San Francisco-based bank is discontinuing a recruitment policy that requires diverse slates of candidates in the first round of interviews for senior-level roles in the U.S., according to a memo to staff seen by Bloomberg News. Training on diverse slates also will be removed from the recruitment process, according to the memo, distributed to senior leaders this week.
"In light of the current environment, we have decided to discontinue the diverse slate guidelines," Wells Fargo said in the memo, adding that the bank will still "source a broad pool of candidates" when recruiting. "We remain focused on maintaining a workplace where we hire the best and most qualified people and one where everyone has equal access to opportunities to grow."
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Wells Fargo previously required a 50% diverse candidate slate and a diverse interviewer panel, according to an August 2022 statement.
A Wells Fargo spokeswoman declined to comment.
Other banks have recently cut back on diversity initiatives amid political pressure. Bank of America will no longer have "aspirational" goals for diversity and inclusion, a person familiar with the matter said this week. Citigroup also said recently that it will abandon a policy for diversity in candidates and interview panels, citing an executive order by Trump that banned "illegal DEI" policies by federal contractors like the bank.
At Wells Fargo, the changes in the recruitment process come after the bank recently modified references to DEI on its website and took down a page dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion.
In its latest annual report, filed Tuesday, Wells Fargo didn't give goals for its diversity programs, while the filing from a year ago said that Wells Fargo "values and promotes diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) in every aspect of our business." Still, the filing from this week showed that Wells Fargo has more female than male employees in the U.S. and globally, and that its U.S. workforce is composed of 51% White employees and 48% racially and ethnically diverse employees, with the rest undeclared.
Similarly, Charles Schwab removed diversity language from its latest annual report. In its 2023 yearly filing, the firm mentioned recruiting staff "from underrepresented communities through targeted campus recruiting, scholarship programs and partnerships with professional organizations." That line isn't included in its 2024 filing, published Wednesday.
Schwab also changed language pertaining to its employee resource groups, which it said last year were centered around "employees who share characteristics or life experiences and are committed to enhancing diversity and inclusion at Schwab." This year, the firm said the groups "are open to all employees, are not limited by affiliation and help us build an inclusive culture."
A spokeswoman for the Westlake, Texas-based firm declined to comment beyond the filing.
