Charlie Scharf

Charles W. Scharf
Scharf in 2020
Charles W. Scharf
Born	24 4, 1965
Birthplace	New York City, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Business executive
Title	Chairman and CEO of Wells Fargo
Known for	CEO of Wells Fargo, former CEO of Visa Inc. and BNY Mellon
Education	Johns Hopkins University (BA) New York University (MBA)

Charles W. Scharf (born April 24, 1965) is an American business executive serving as the chairman and chief executive officer of Wells Fargo & Company, one of the largest financial institutions in the United States. A protégé of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Scharf built a career across some of the most prominent firms in American finance before taking the helm at Wells Fargo in October 2019, at a time when the bank was contending with the severe fallout from its 2016 fake accounts scandal and operating under multiple regulatory consent orders, including a $1.95 trillion asset cap imposed by the Federal Reserve. Before joining Wells Fargo, Scharf served as CEO of Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) and, prior to that, as CEO of Visa Inc.. In July 2025, the Wells Fargo Board of Directors announced its intention to name Scharf as chairman in addition to his role as CEO, and he assumed the chairmanship in October 2025. His total compensation for 2025 was $40 million, a 28% increase over the prior year, making it the highest pay awarded to a Wells Fargo leader in the bank's history.

Early Life

Charles W. Scharf was born on April 24, 1965, in New York City. He grew up in the New York metropolitan area. Details about his family background and upbringing have remained largely private, though his career trajectory suggests an early orientation toward finance and business.

Scharf's professional formation was shaped significantly by his early association with Jamie Dimon, the financier who would go on to lead JPMorgan Chase and become one of the most influential figures in American banking. Scharf has been described in financial media as a Dimon protégé, having worked alongside him at multiple institutions over the course of his career. This mentorship and professional relationship would prove instrumental in shaping Scharf's approach to management, risk control, and institutional transformation — skills that would later be tested at Wells Fargo.

Education

Scharf attended Johns Hopkins University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. He subsequently pursued graduate studies at New York University, where he obtained a Master of Business Administration (MBA). His educational background combined a liberal arts foundation with formal business training, a combination common among executives in the financial services industry.

Career

Early Career and Work with Jamie Dimon

Scharf began his career in financial services working in close proximity to Jamie Dimon across several institutions. This association spanned multiple companies and gave Scharf extensive exposure to the operations of major financial firms. The working relationship between Scharf and Dimon was formative, with Scharf absorbing management principles and operational discipline that would characterize his later leadership roles.

During this period, Scharf gained experience in retail banking, commercial banking, and financial operations — areas that would prove relevant to his subsequent positions atop major financial companies.

CEO of Visa Inc.

Scharf served as the chief executive officer of Visa Inc., the global payments technology company. During his tenure at Visa, Scharf oversaw the operations of one of the world's largest electronic payment networks. His total compensation at Visa in 2013 was reported to be $24.2 million.

In September 2014, Fortune profiled Scharf in connection with his leadership of Visa, noting his role in guiding the payments company during a period of significant growth in electronic transactions and digital payments.

Scharf departed Visa in 2016, with the company announcing that former American Express executive Alfred F. Kelly Jr. would succeed him as CEO.

CEO of Bank of New York Mellon

Following his tenure at Visa, Scharf became the chief executive officer of Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon), one of the oldest and largest financial institutions in the United States and a major custodian bank. At BNY Mellon, Scharf was responsible for overseeing the firm's asset servicing, asset management, and wealth management operations. His time at the institution further broadened his experience in the banking sector beyond payments processing, exposing him to custodial banking, trust services, and institutional asset management.

CEO of Wells Fargo

Appointment and Context

In October 2019, Scharf was appointed chief executive officer of Wells Fargo, succeeding interim CEO C. Allen Parker. His appointment came at a critical juncture for the bank. Wells Fargo had been engulfed in scandal since 2016, when it was revealed that employees had created millions of fraudulent savings and checking accounts on behalf of customers without their consent. The scandal led to billions of dollars in fines, the departure of multiple senior executives, and an unprecedented enforcement action by the Federal Reserve, which in 2018 imposed a cap on the bank's assets at approximately $1.95 trillion — effectively limiting the bank's ability to grow until it could demonstrate that it had adequately addressed its risk management and compliance failures.

Wells Fargo was also operating under multiple consent orders from various regulatory agencies, reflecting the breadth and depth of the compliance and governance problems identified across the institution. The bank needed a leader with the credibility and operational expertise to undertake a comprehensive overhaul of its risk management infrastructure, corporate culture, and regulatory relationships.

Regulatory Remediation and Consent Order Resolution

Scharf's tenure at Wells Fargo has been defined in large part by his efforts to address the bank's regulatory challenges. Upon taking office, Scharf undertook a detailed assessment of the work required to satisfy the demands of regulators. As he later recalled, the remediation document he reviewed was 3,162 pages long, encompassed 6,000 individual tasks, and had involved the work of 28,000 people. The scale of the remediation effort underscored the severity of the problems the bank faced and the complexity of the path to resolution.

Under Scharf's leadership, Wells Fargo pursued the resolution of the consent orders that had been placed on the bank by various regulatory agencies. By 2025, the bank had achieved the resolution of seven consent orders, a milestone that the board of directors cited as a key factor in its decision to increase Scharf's compensation. The resolution of the consent orders, including progress toward the eventual lifting of the Federal Reserve's $1.95 trillion asset cap, represented a significant step in restoring the bank's regulatory standing and operational flexibility.

The asset cap, which had been imposed in February 2018, was one of the most consequential regulatory penalties ever levied against a major U.S. bank, as it directly constrained Wells Fargo's ability to grow its balance sheet and compete with peers such as JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup. The resolution of consent orders in 2025 was viewed as progress toward the eventual removal of this cap, though the full lifting of the cap remained subject to the Federal Reserve's assessment of the bank's compliance efforts.

Operational and Strategic Initiatives

Beyond regulatory remediation, Scharf pursued a series of operational and strategic changes at Wells Fargo. He brought in new management talent, restructured the bank's organizational framework, and sought to instill a stronger culture of risk management and compliance throughout the institution. His approach was characterized by a focus on accountability, operational efficiency, and disciplined execution — traits that observers linked to his years working under Jamie Dimon's influence.

Scharf also addressed the bank's approach to technology, including the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) across the institution's operations. In November 2025, Scharf spoke publicly about the impact of AI on the banking workforce, stating that bank jobs would change and headcounts would shrink as a result of AI adoption. He urged the industry to be honest about these changes rather than avoiding the topic. His comments reflected a pragmatic stance on technological disruption in financial services, acknowledging both the opportunities and the workforce implications of AI integration.

Appointment as Chairman

On July 31, 2025, the Wells Fargo Board of Directors announced its intention to name Scharf as chairman of the board in addition to his role as CEO. The announcement also included a special equity award for Scharf, reflecting the board's assessment of his contributions to the bank's turnaround. Scharf assumed the chairmanship in October 2025, consolidating the top executive and governance roles at the institution. The combining of the CEO and chairman roles had been a matter of corporate governance debate at many major banks, with some shareholders and governance advocates preferring the separation of the two positions to ensure independent board oversight of management.

Compensation

Scharf's compensation at Wells Fargo has attracted public and media attention, particularly as the bank has progressed through its remediation efforts. For the year 2025, the Wells Fargo board awarded Scharf total compensation of $40 million, representing a 28% increase from his $31.2 million package in the prior year. Bloomberg reported that this was the highest compensation level for a top leader of the bank in its history.

The board attributed the compensation increase to Scharf's role in resolving seven consent orders during 2025, including progress related to the $1.95 trillion asset cap, as well as the bank's overall financial performance under his leadership.

CEO compensation at large U.S. banks has been a subject of broader public debate. An Associated Press analysis of CEO pay ratios across major corporations highlighted the gap between executive compensation and median worker pay, a discussion in which Scharf's pay packages have been cited as part of the larger trend.

Diversity Remarks Controversy

In September 2020, Scharf became the subject of public controversy when Reuters reported that in a company-wide memo and a Zoom meeting, he had attributed the bank's difficulty in meeting its diversity hiring goals to what he described as a limited pool of Black talent. The remarks drew criticism from employees, civil rights groups, and members of the public, who argued that the comments reflected a failure to recognize systemic barriers to diversity in the financial industry and placed blame on the talent pool rather than on institutional practices.

CNBC and Forbes, among other outlets, reported on the backlash to the remarks. Scharf subsequently acknowledged that his comments had been insensitive and stated that the bank needed to do more to create pathways for diverse talent within its ranks. The episode was one of several public relations challenges Scharf faced during his early tenure at Wells Fargo, occurring against the backdrop of heightened national attention to racial inequality following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and the subsequent protest movements.

Personal Life

Scharf has maintained a relatively private personal life. He was born and raised in New York City. Beyond his professional activities, limited information about his personal interests and family has been made publicly available. His public persona has been defined primarily by his roles in the financial services industry and the operational and regulatory challenges he has navigated at Wells Fargo.

Recognition

Scharf's leadership at Wells Fargo has been recognized primarily through the lens of the bank's turnaround from its post-scandal period. The Wells Fargo Board of Directors has cited his contributions to the resolution of regulatory consent orders and the bank's improved compliance infrastructure as factors in both his compensation and his elevation to the role of chairman.

Fortune published an extensive profile of Scharf in October 2025, examining his career trajectory from his early association with Jamie Dimon through his decision to take on the challenge of leading Wells Fargo through its most difficult period. The profile described the scale of the remediation effort Scharf oversaw and the personal career risk he accepted in taking the position.

His $40 million compensation package for 2025 was widely reported in national media, including Reuters, Bloomberg, the New York Post, and the Charlotte Observer, reflecting the broader public interest in executive compensation at major financial institutions.

Legacy

Scharf's legacy is closely tied to the outcome of his efforts to restore Wells Fargo's reputation and regulatory standing following the fake accounts scandal. When he assumed the CEO role in 2019, the bank was operating under a cloud of regulatory penalties and diminished public trust. The subsequent resolution of multiple consent orders under his leadership represented measurable progress in addressing the institutional failures that had precipitated the crisis.

His comments on the impact of artificial intelligence on the banking workforce positioned him as one of the more forthright voices among major bank CEOs on the subject of technology-driven workforce changes, a topic of increasing significance across the financial services industry.

The diversity remarks controversy in 2020 remains a notable episode in Scharf's public record, illustrating the challenges facing corporate leaders in addressing issues of racial equity and inclusion. The incident and its aftermath became part of the broader national conversation about diversity in corporate America.

As chairman and CEO, Scharf holds the dual leadership roles at a bank with a 173-year history and a central position in the American financial system. The ultimate assessment of his tenure will depend in part on whether the Federal Reserve fully lifts the asset cap that has constrained the bank's growth since 2018, and on the long-term durability of the compliance and cultural changes he has sought to implement.