A Wells Fargo ATM machine is shown in Los Angeles, Calif.Mike Blake/Reuters
Wells Fargo & Co. reported a 26 per cent fall in quarterly profit on Tuesday, as the lender braced for additional legal expenses tied to a sales practices scandal that erupted more than three years ago.
Net income applicable to common stock fell to $4.04-billion, or 92 cents per share, in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, from $5.45-billion, or $1.13 per share, a year earlier. Analysts had expected a profit of $1.15 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv, but it was not immediately clear if the numbers were comparable.
The San Francisco-based lender last month appointed Charles Scharf, a one-time Jamie Dimon protégé known on Wall Street as a detail-oriented number cruncher who excels in streamlining operations, as its new top boss.