Wells Fargo Shareholders Urged to Vote Against Six Board Members

(Bloomberg) -- Wells Fargo & Co. shareholders should vote against members of the bank's board of directors who failed to protect its reputation in last year's account-opening scandal, proxy-advisory firm Glass Lewis & Co. recommended.

The board's corporate responsibility committee should be held accountable for Wells Fargo's “clumsy” response to revelations that some employees may have opened more than 2 million deposit and credit-card accounts without customers' permission, Glass Lewis said in a report published Monday. The scandal is evidence that the committee's members -- John Baker, Lloyd Dean, Enrique Hernandez and Cynthia Milligan -- failed to adequately oversee the firm's reputational risk, Glass Lewis said.

Shareholders should oppose the four directors “based on the reputational damage inflicted on the company and this committee's failure to properly fulfill its stated duties,” the report said.

The advisory firm also urged investors to vote against directors John Chen and Susan Swenson, since they're members of several other company boards and might not be able to dedicate the time necessary to Wells Fargo. The Charlotte Observer reported on the recommendations earlier Tuesday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jenny Surane in New York at jsurane4@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Eichenbaum at peichenbaum@bloomberg.net, Steven Crabill, Steve Dickson