Federal Reserve press conference, 2019-07-31 — Chair Jerome Powell

Question (John Heltman, American Banker): Hi, John Heltman with American Banker. So it’s been about 18 months since the Fed issued its enforcement action against Wells Fargo. And I was wondering if you could characterize the progress that the bank has made towards the shortcomings that it had in its risk-management processes. And I’m also curious whether their lack of a permanent CEO has hampered progress, in your eyes.
Answer: So the problems at Wells Fargo—that arose at Wells Fargo around risk management and consumer—the way they dealt with the consumer were actually pretty deep, and I think the company realizes that. And they’re not going to be fixed—they haven’t been fixed quickly, and, frankly, we didn’t expect them to be fixed quickly. So they’re—you know, they—they will be under the growth cap, our enforcement action, until the Board votes to lift it, and that’s not something we’re considering doing right now. And the Committee—I mean, the company is working away to address these issues, but, as I said, they’re deep-seated issues, and it just takes time to address them. I wouldn’t comment on the CEO question. I don’t really have anything for you on that.