Former Goldman Sachs exec Howard Schwartz reportedly turned down the top spot at Wells Fargo

Former Goldman Sachs executive Harvey Schwartz is said to turn down opportunity to take on Wells Fargo CEO role.
It counters previous reports that the ex-president at the bank had interviewed for the role.
Schwartz missed out on replacing Lloyd Blankfein as Goldman CEO to David Solomon a year ago.

A year after missing out on becoming Goldman Sachs CEO Harvey Schwartz is keeping his options open.

Reports suggested that the former Goldman exec had interviewed for the role of CEO at Wells Fargo but this has been denied by Schwartz, according to CNBC, citing people close to him.

"He has been approached by numerous companies both public and private,” one of the people said to CNBC.

Schwartz lost out on the position of CEO of Goldman Sachs a year ago in a much discussed race which saw him miss out to now CEO David Solomon. Schwartz ran Goldman’s trading arm and spent four years as CFO in a 20-year career at the Wall Street firm.

Wells Fargo, the third largest bank in the US, has been no stranger to controversy of late with its current CEO Tim Sloan testifying before the House Financial Services Committee on Capitol Hill two weeks ago.

Last December, the bank agreed to pay a $575 million fine as a direct consequence of claims that some of its accounts were false. Similarly, Wells Fargo agreed to pay nearly $2.1 billion last year after claims of misbehaviour in its auto and mortgage business, according to Fox Business.

Despite sticking with Sloan through the recent crises the California-based bank appears to be on the lookout for a new chief executive.

Schwartz could not be reached for comment.

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Source: Business Insider – cburroughs@businessinsider.com (Callum Burroughs)