Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway remains among the largest shareholders of beleagured Wells Fargo, said on Thursday (Sept. 29) that he has not, contrary to one published report by a research firm, been agitating for “radical transformation” at the bank.
The billionaire told CNBC that he has spoken only to CEO John Stumpf and no one else on the company’s board of directors, stating that any other speculation remains “dead wrong.”
The comments came after a Thursday report by Douglas Kass, of Seabreeze Partners Management, where wrote that Buffett has indeed been lobbying for wholesale ethics changes at the firm. Buffett for his part said that in his conversation with Stumpf that $185 million fine levied by regulators earlier this month on the set up of false accounts “was not a metric to use in determining public reaction.”
