- Stephen Troutner, Wells Fargo’s head of small business banking, has left the bank.
- He reported to the CEO of Consumer & Small Business Banking and joined in February 2019.
- He stepped down in June to focus on his health and his family, a Wells Fargo spokesperson said.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
Stephen Troutner, Wells Fargo’s head of small business banking and a direct report to Consumer and Small Business Banking Chief Executive Mary Mack, has the left the bank, Insider has learned.
Troutner joined Wells Fargo in February 2019 as its western region bank head based in Los Angeles, reporting to Mack. In that role, he was responsible for the bank’s West Coast operations, which at the time included more than 30,000 employees and 2,600 branches.
In early 2020, Troutner was promoted to head Wells Fargo’s small business banking division. The move came as the COVID-19 pandemic upended the US economy. Troutner took charge of Wells Fargo’s administration of Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, loans.
“It sure felt like 30 seconds after I took the role, the Paycheck Protection Program legislation was passed and we were off and running, trying to get that stood up and implemented to help customers as quickly as we could,” Troutner told Insider in March.
It is unclear who will replace Troutner. He stepped down in June to focus on his health and his family, a Wells Fargo spokesperson said. Troutner could not be reached via email or LinkedIn message.
Wells Fargo has loaned some $3.5 billion this year as part of PPP, ranking 15th nationally but with a smaller typical loan size than the national average, according to data through May 31 from the Small Business Administration.
In October 2020, Wells Fargo had fired at least 100 employees for fraudulently applying for pandemic-related relief funds from the SBA, Bloomberg first reported. JPMorgan fired several employees for misusing SBA funds under the administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, the Financial Times and Reuters reported in September.
Troutner’s exit comes as the fourth-largest US bank’s leadership has changed significantly in recent years. Since Chief Officer Executive Charlie Scharf joined Wells Fargo in October 2019, he has overhauled its leadership and contours after years of scandal inside the bank.
He instituted a new firm-wide reporting structure in an effort to promote more supervision. He appointed nearly half of the bank’s core leadership team. And he brought in outsiders, many from his former employers JPMorgan and BNY Mellon, to run key areas like wealth and investment management, consumer lending, and public affairs.
The bank outlined a new reporting structure under Mack in May. She counts executives like Kathy Barney, who leads branch banking operations and supervision, and David Miree, who leads the consumer and small business banking division’s diverse customer segments, as direct reports. Mack joined the bank in 1984 and is the longest-tenured executive on its 18-person senior leadership team, where 14 of its leaders have joined since 2018.
Prior to joining Wells Fargo in 2019, Troutner served as CEO of The Emily Program, a eating-disorder treatment provider based in Minnesota. Earlier, he led US branch banking and consumer banking products at Citibank.
Another consumer banking-focused executive has also left the firm. Jason Martin, head of Wells Fargo’s ATM and branch channels, has also left the bank as of June, according to LinkedIn. He is now a principal in consulting giant EY’s business transformation consulting practice with a focus on consumer banking, per LinkedIn.
It was unclear who will replace Martin. A Wells Fargo spokesperson declined to comment.
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