Stumpf told to resign as Wells Fargo boss over accounts scandal

Wells Fargo Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf faced a US Senate Banking Committee hearing on Tuesday in which senator Elizabeth Warren told him he should resign over his role in the bank's fake accounts scandal.

The third largest bank in the United States by assets was recently found to have created over 2m unauthorised accounts and credit cards for its customers, in order to reach sales targets set by senior executives. It was fined $185m by regulators.

Stumpf was called before the committee to explain the actions of the company and cut a hapless figure as he was grilled by Warren and her colleagues.

"You should resign. You should give back the money that you took while this scam was going on, and you should be criminally investigated by both the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchanges Commission," she told him.

Warren went on to criticise Wall Street as a whole, and used Wells Fargo as an example of how employees at lower levels are held accountable for their actions, but top executives often escape prosecution.

"The only way that Wall Street will change is if executives face jail time when they preside over massive frauds."

CEO Stumpf struggled to provide responses to the committee's probes, but did apologise for the actions of the bank. However, he fell short of admitting to orchestrate the bogus scheme.

"I am deeply sorry we failed to fulfil our responsibility," Stumpf said. "We never directed nor wanted our team members to provide products and services to our customers that they didn't want. That said, I accept full responsibility for all unethical sales practices."