Wells Fargo board approves bank CEO compensation of $40 million, a 28% jump
Wells Fargo CEO and President Charlie Scharf is set to receive a significant pay increase, with the bank’s board of directors approving a total compensation package of $40 million for last year.
That’s up more than 28%, or $8 million, from his $31.2 million total in 2024. The compensation increase, detailed in Thursday’s 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, follows what the San Francisco-based bank’s board described as a “rigorous and holistic assessment of company and individual performance.” Scharf’s new package includes a base salary of $2.5 million, with the remaining $37.5 million from $9.37 million in cash and $28.12 million in long-term equity. The equity component is split into 65% performance share awards and 35% restricted share rights awards.
Wells Fargo declined a request for comment Friday.
Wells Fargo is the fourth-largest bank in the U.S., with over $1.7 trillion in assets. Charlotte is Wells Fargo’s biggest employment hub, with about 27,000 workers among its 215,000 total employees.
Scharf tenure marked by bank transformation
Scharf joined Wells Fargo in 2019, when the bank was grappling with the fallout from its 2016 fake sales scandal. Hundreds of thousands of bank employees opening millions of unauthorized accounts and other financial products between 2002 and 2016 to meet aggressive sales goals.
Scharf’s appointment followed a six-month search after the departures of previous CEOs Timothy Sloan and John Stumpfl.
Scharf had previously asked the bank’s board to keep his pay for 2022 the same as the prior year, at $24.5 million in total compensation, with work still to be done to transform the company.
Last June, Wells Fargo’s harshest punishment — a $1.95 trillion asset cap that prevented it from growing — was lifted by the Federal Reserve. Some 13 federal regulatory consent orders, including seven in 2025, were terminated.
In July, Scharf was named chairman of the board and received a one-time, special equity grant of $30 million in restricted share rights and stock options from the board. The award acknowledged his role in leading Wells Fargo through unprecedented transformation.
Wells Fargo milestones under CEO Scharf
Along with the removal asset cap and regulatory orders, other milestones achieved under Scharf in 2025, according to the board, include:
- Financial performance: Net income increased to $21.3 billion, and diluted earnings per share grew 17% from the prior year.
- Revenue growth: Fee-based revenue saw a 5% year-over-year increase across both consumer and commercial businesses.
- Shareholder returns: Maintaining strong capital levels while returning approximately $23 billion of capital to shareholders, including an $18 billion common stock repurchase and a 13% increase in the quarterly common stock dividend per share.
- Profitability: The return on equity increased to 12.4% last year, up from 11.4% in 2024.
