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- Bloomberg said War Run Buffett has cut its holdings in Wells Fargo because the bank’s board went against his advice and appointed the chief of New Street as its new CEO, Bloomberg said.
- Well-known investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO told the Financial Times last year that Wells Fargo should hire someone from outside Wall Street or risk angering Congress. “It’s just not smart,” he said.
- Buffett’s company has owned shares in the bank for more than 30 years, but has reduced its position by more than 60% this year to a 17-year low.
- Investors will learn next month whether Berkshire is out of this situation altogether.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Warren Buffett may have reduced his stake in Wells Fargo to a 17-year low this year as the bank’s directors ignored his advice and appointed a Wall Street executive as their new CEO, according to Bloomberg.
The billionaire investor and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway told the Financial Times last year that Wells Fargo was still reeling from its fake account scam, putting angry regulators at risk if he took the job of his next boss from JPMorgan, Goldm Sachs or any other big bank. Was.
“They just have to come from somewhere [outside Wells] Buffett said, and they shouldn’t come from Wall Street.
“There are a lot of good men to run it [from the Wall Street banks], But they’re automatically going to draw a significant percentage of the Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, and that’s just not smart, ”he added.
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However, Wells Fargo went against the guidance of its largest shareholder and hired Charles Scarf, who worked at JPMorgan in September last year before running Visa and the subsequent BNY Mellon. He also agreed to let his new chief executive run a bank in California from New York.
“It’s outrageous,” said Buffett’s right-hand man and vice chairman of Berkshire, about arranging to work on a visit to Bloomberg earlier this year.
Sell Wells
Berkshire has been a shareholder of Wells Fargo for more than 30 years, making the bank one of its five largest holdings for the most part. It owned more than 13% of the bank in 1994, and boasted more than 500 million shares worth more than 27 27 billion in 2016.
However, it has reduced its position by more than 60% this year to less than 140 million shares, giving it a 3.3% position in the bank, its smallest percentage since 2003.
Buffett’s company may have exited Wells Fargo completely in the last quarter. Investors will be able to find out when Berkshire’s hold will be released in mid-November.
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Berkshire sold a number of financial stocks in the second quarter, including JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs. Wells Fargo is also subject to a regulatory cap on its assets. The bank reported quarterly losses this year and cut its dividends this year, citing a number of alternative reasons why Berkshire has pushed its position forward.
Buffett’s company, on the other hand, traded America 2.1 billion in Bank of America shares in the last quarter, indicating that it is not soft on the banking sector as a whole.
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