Two years ago, Charlie Scharf held himself out of the echelon of CEOs making $30 million a year. Now he’s in the $40 million club.
Wells Fargo’s board approved $40 million in compensation for Scharf in 2025, the bank said in a filing Thursday, citing “a rigorous and holistic assessment of Company and individual performance.”
Among factors weighing heavily into Scharf’s compensation level, regulators closed seven consent orders against Wells last year, including a $1.95 trillion asset cap the Federal Reserve imposed in 2018.
With that growth limit in Wells’ rear-view mirror, Scharf said last month “the world is our oyster now.”
“With [the cap] gone, we can now compete on a much more level playing field,” Scharf said. “There’s nothing [now] that we think stands in the way of having returns and growth equal to the best in class.”
Scharf said Wells had been spending $2 billion to $2.5 billion per year toward resolving regulatory shortcomings and deficiencies. Now that freed capital can be invested elsewhere in the bank.
Indeed, among Wells’ justification for Scharf’s compensation, the bank said it was “beginning to realize the benefits from a multiyear investment strategy with stronger new account growth, higher deposit and loan balances, increased market share across many of our businesses, and positioning the company for stronger growth and improved returns moving forward.”
Wells reported $21.3 billion in net income for 2025, it noted in Thursday’s filing. The bank also increased its return on equity by a full percentage point last year, to 12.4% and has established a new medium-term return on tangible common equity target of 17% to 18%.
Scharf’s compensation amounts to a 28.2% boost over the $31.2 million he received for 2024. That may be a counterbalance to a year ago, when Scharf saw the smallest raise among his peers, at 7.6%.
Scharf’s 2024 payout marked the first time he was paid more than $30 million in a year at Wells. The bank offered him $30.3 million for 2023, but he asked the human resources committee to “exercise negative discretion” and pay him $29 million to reflect that “more work remains ahead” – presumably a reference to the now-resolved consent orders.
Scharf’s 2025 pay breaks down to a $2.5 million base salary, and variable compensation of $9.375 million in cash and $28.125 million in long-term equity. It should be noted, too, that Wells in July gave Scharf a $30 million one-time equity award and named him chair of its board, in addition to serving as CEO.
Wells Fargo is the third of the six largest U.S. banks, after JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, to report CEO compensation so far this year. The others – Bank of America, Citi and Morgan Stanley – likely will do so by March.
Scharf’s 28.2% raise is the steepest year-over-year climb reported in CEO pay at big banks so far in 2026. Goldman CEO David Solomon saw a 20.5% compensation bump to $47 million for 2025. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s pay increased 10.3% to $43 million.
Wells on Thursday also credited Scharf for “maintaining a disciplined approach to managing expenses while continuing to make strategic investments in technology, products, and talent to grow our businesses.”
The CEO for years emphasized cutting business lines that were “non-core” and continued that last year when it jettisoned a $4.4 billion portfolio of railcar-related assets.
The bank also lauded Scharf for “continuing to build and develop a strong senior leadership team.”
In that regard, the bank tapped Saul Van Beurden, its chief executive of consumer and small-business banking, to scale artificial intelligence at Wells.
The move also allowed Kleber Santos, Wells’ CEO for consumer lending, to take on added responsibilities as the bank combined its consumer lending and banking units.
