Wells Fargo beats on first earnings report since unauthorised accounts scandal

Under-fire US bank Wells Fargo has beaten analysts' expectations in its first earnings report since news broke of its fake account scandal, but profits fell as expected.

Revenue of $22.3bn was reported on Friday morning, with earnings per share at $1.03. Wall Street had predicted earnings per share of $1.01 for revenue of $22.22bn.

The California-based bank reported $5.64bn in profit, in comparison with $5.8bn in the same quarter of 2015.

The bank came under intense scrutiny in recent weeks after it emerged in September that it had been fined $185m by regulators for creating unauthorised accounts and credit cards for its customers.

Over 5000 members of staff were laid off as a result of the scandal, but no executives were sacked.

Former CEO John Stumpf resigned this week, with his position being filled by former COO Timothy Sloan. Stumpf had faced committees in both the House of Representatives and the Senate over the alleged aggressive sales practices which led to the misdemeanour.

Shares in the bank have fallen around 10% since the emergence of the news, but pre-market trade on Friday morning saw it hold more than 1% higher ahead of the bell.