By Imani Moise and Abhishek Manikandan
(Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co (N:WFC) Chief Executive Charles Scharf on Tuesday announced his first major reshuffle since taking over in October, naming several executives to new roles while also tapping a JPMorgan veteran to head consumer lending.
The shakeup is aimed at putting a new structure in place as the bank looks to rebuild its reputation and increase accountability, Wells Fargo said in a statement.
The new structure, which increases the bank's business lines to five from three, closely resembles that of JPMorgan Chase & Co (N:JPM), where Scharf was mentored by CEO Jamie Dimon earlier in his career.
Scharf has already brought on several former colleagues from the No. 1 U.S. bank. The latest addition, Mike Weinbach, will join the firm after 16 years at JPMorgan to lead the San Francisco-based lender's new consumer lending division in May.
Wells Fargo also hired a third executive from Santander (MC:SAN) Holdings USA, Andrew Heller, to serve as strategy and operations planning leader.
The consumer bank will be split into a consumer lending division and a retail banking division, and the wholesale bank will be divided into a commercial banking unit, and a corporate and investment banking unit. The wealth management division was left unchanged.
As part of the management overhaul, the bank is seeking to fill a number of new executive positions. It is searching, among other openings, for a segment leader for its small business unit, a consumer banking marketing head and an executive to run its digital strategies for the consumer and small business unit, according to internal memos seen by Reuters.
The bank is also seeking a lead business control executive to supervise control executives across its business lines, the memos said.
Additionally, Wells Fargo has disbanded its Payments, Virtual Solutions and Innovation Group and formed a new group called Strategy, Digital Platform & Innovation focused on digital strategies and customer experience.
New Chief Operating Officer Scott Powell, a former JPMorgan and Santander executive, will run the unit until a permanent replacement is found.