Wells Fargo hires BNY Mellon executive as CFO

Wells Fargo & Co. hired Mike Santomassimo as its next chief financial officer, succeeding John Shrewsberry, who has held the role for the past six years.

Santomassimo, who has been CFO at Bank of New York Mellon Corp. since 2018, will take on the role starting in the fall, Wells Fargo said in a statement Tuesday. Shrewsberry, who has been CFO since 2014, will continue in the role until Santomassimo joins and will assist with the transition afterward, the bank said.

Chief Executive Charlie Scharf, who also joined from Bank of New York Mellon, has been shaking up the bank’s top management since taking over late last year. Wells Fargo last week reported its first quarterly loss since 2008 on a spike in loan-loss provisions tied to the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

Part of Santomassimo’s task is likely to be helping to rein in the bank’s costs. Scharf said he will start cutting expenses in the second half of this year and aims to eventually trim at least $10 billion of costs. Wells Fargo -- the biggest employer among U.S. banks, with 266,000 workers -- is planning thousands of job cuts to start in 2020, Bloomberg reported earlier this month.

“Mike is a strategic-minded CFO with success in building and leading global finance teams that help drive business improvement,” Scharf said in the statement. “He is action-oriented and will be an important partner to me and our entire operating committee as we move our company forward.”

[More: Wells Fargo to cut its dividend]