Company: WFC-PC
Filing Date: 2025-04-02
Form Type: PX14A6G
Source: 0001214659-25-005207
Chunk: 1

Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY/MN
Filing Date: 2025-04-02
Form: PX14A6G
Chunk 1
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 false account scandal in 2016 and subsequently with other investors in 2021 regarding the Company’s
Human Rights Impact Assessment.

Sizeable Raises for Stagnant Performance

In 2024, Wells Fargo’s Board of Directors and Human Resources
Committee (“HRC”) paid the Company’s named executive officers a total of $107.8 million, up 46% from the 2023 total
of $73.6 million. While this figure, based in part on the grant-date fair value of equity compensation, includes “one-time”
bonus payments and equity grants to newly hired executives Fernando Rivas and Bridget Engle, these executives joined the Company in May
and August 2024, implying that Wells Fargo was paying other executives to fill their roles over the balance of the year. Moreover,
when considering average compensation actually paid to the top 5 executive officers other than the CEO, the year-over-year increase is
63.7%, from an average of $17.6 million to $28.8 million. At the same time, CEO Charles Scharf’s “compensation actually paid”
increased by 93%, from $36.4 million to $70.4 million.

These substantial raises were paid despite Wells Fargo experiencing
stagnant performance in terms of Return on Tangible Common Equity (ROTCE), total revenue, and the Efficiency Ratio, which the HRC describes
as “the most important financial performance measures used by the Company to link executive compensation actually paid to the Company’s
NEOs.” Figure 1 below illustrates the disconnect between substantial pay increases and flatlining performance, especially
for 2024.

<div align='center'>Figure 1</div>

How did the HRC conclude that Wells
Fargo’s executives earned such substantial pay increases despite mediocre performance? First, in calculating “Variable Compensation,”
the HRC determined that the Company as a whole achieved 113% of its target level of performance. However, even a brief visual inspection
of the metrics the HRC relied on to make this determination raises serious questions: on the 16 metrics shown (9 unadjusted and 7 adjusted),
Wells Fargo’s performance declined on exactly half. Additionally, on the 8 metrics where Wells Performance improved, that improvement
was very modest. For instance, unadjusted ROTCE increased, but only from 13.1% to 13.4% (while adjusted ROTCE declined from 14.2% to 13.6%).
We further note