It would appear that banks have not only a problem with institutional racism but also with institutional stupidity. This week Reuters reported that the CEO of Wells Fargo, Charles Scharf, wrote a memo to employees noting that “(w)hile it might sound like an excuse, the unfortunate reality is that there is a very limited pool of black talent to recruit from.” This memo was then followed up with similar remarks in a company Zoom meeting. The meeting was seen by some attendees as positive but not all. As the Reuters article further noted: “Senior corporate executives and recruiters said the notion of a shallow minority talent pool is frequently cited as a hurdle to improving diversity but probably reflects insular professional and social networks.” It is indeed likely that those informal networks are why banking has a dearth of diversity in management at all levels – diversity of race, gender and socio-economic backgound.
These remarks led to a very passionate response in an essay in The Washington Post. The writer, Karen Attiah, is a life long Wells Fargo client. After citing the cost of many fines paid by Wells Fargo, she notes: “(i)magine if all this money and effort had instead gone not only into recruiting and hiring Black people, but also toward helping Black people build wealth. Racism is not just a hell of a hard-to-kick drug, it’s an expensive one to boot.” These thoughts echo an issue not only for Wells Fargo but many other US banks.
