Wells Fargo credit card exec Beverly Anderson leaves for Equifax - Business Insider

Beverly Anderson, who was Wells Fargo's head of cards and retail services, will start at Equifax on Dec. 2., according to a statement earlier this month from Equifax.She had reported to Wells veteran Avid Modjtabai, head of payments and a member of the bank's operating committee. Wells Fargo has named an interim leader for its cards and retail services (CRS), but no permanent leader, a Wells Fargo spokesperson told Business Insider.Wells' new CEO Charlie Scharf joined in late October. He previously was chief executive of BNY Mellon, and also has experience in the payments world from his tenure as Visa's CEO. Rick Eiel, who leads analytics and strategy for Wells Fargo's CRS business, is serving as interim leader for CRS. Wells Fargo told us that no other reporting lines have changed at this time. The bank is still trying to clean up its image more than three years after revelations that bank workers had created millions of phony credit card and bank accounts in customers' names to hit sales targets. Click here for more BI Prime stories.Wells Fargo's head of cards and retail services left the bank and taken a job at Equifax, and the bank has not yet named a permanent replacement. Rick Eiel, who leads analytics and strategy for Wells Fargo's cards and retail services (CRS) business, is serving as interim leader for CRS until a permanent leader is named following Beverly Anderson's departure, a Wells Fargo spokesperson told Business Insider in emailed comments.No other reporting lines have changed at this time, the spokesperson said. The bank's brand-new CEO Charlie Scharf started in late October. He previously was chief executive of BNY Mellon, and also has experience in the payments world from his tenure as Visa's CEO. The new CEO already started bringing in people from his own circle to help clean up Wells' image some three years after revelations bank workers had created millions of phony bank accounts and credit cards in customers' names to hit sales targets. The fourth-biggest US bank had been meanwhile pushing forward on new tech like contactless cards, but also looking to curb overall spending and cut headcount.Equifax had said in a statement on Nov. 1 that Anderson was joining the credit reporting company — which has image problems of its own after a 2017 data breach affected nearly 147 million people — as president of global consumer services starting on Dec. 2. Wells Fargo had tapped Anderson to run cards and retail services in August 2017. She had served as its interim leader since March 2017, replacing Shelly Freeman, who was fired as part of an internal probe into the bank's sales practices issues. Eiel joined Wells Fargo in 2012 as a senior vice president for the bank's consumer credit business. Before moving to Wells, Eiel was a marketing director for JPMorgan's credit card and retail banking channels, according to LinkedIn.Some recent efforts under Anderson's watch had included a rollout of contactless cards that started in April, and a push to add tap-to-start transactions at most of Wells Fargo's more than 13,000 ATMs.Anderson had reported into Wells Fargo's payments, virtual solutions, and innovation (PVSI) group, which is run by long-time Wells veteran Avid Modjtabai, who also serves on the bank's operating committee. That payments group was created in October 2016, which was just a month after the bank's broad-reaching sales practices scandal first came to light. Before running CRS, Anderson headed up the bank's consumer credit card business. That falls under the broader cards and retail services she was running more recently. She joined Wells Fargo from American Express in 2012, where she last served as VP of business insights, which provides analytics for merchants. Wells Fargo has struggled with reputational damage because of its sales practices scandal, and Scharf is its third CEO in as many years. On Nov. 7 the bank said it had hired Bill Daley, a former White House chief of staff (and a past colleague of Scharf's) to run public affairs. Scharf is the first outsider to helm the bank since the scandal broke. The Wall Street Journal reported in October that the board would be open to an executive management shake-up under Scharf. He replaced Allen Parker, Wells' general council who was named interim chief in March following the abrupt resignation of Tim Sloan, who had spent nearly 30 years at the bank. Parker has stayed on as general council. Wells Fargo is under pressure to rein in costs after the huge sales-practices scandal came to light in 2016. That means it's been balancing new tech investments geared at boosting revenue and efficiency against improvements in risk and compliance. In 2018 it laid out a three-year headcount reduction of 5 to 10 percent of staff.