BUSINESS NEWS | Mon Oct 10, 2016 | 12:34pm EDT

Religious investors lose faith in Wells Fargo after scandal

By Ross Kerber | BOSTON

A group of nuns and other religiously-affiliated investors have lost faith in embattled Wells Fargo & Co and filed a shareholder resolution calling on the bank to report on the root causes of a fake accounts scandal that led to a $190 million settlement struck with regulators last month.

The faith-based investors say they also want the report to cover improved controls after revelations bank employees opened as many as 2 million checking, savings and credit card accounts without the customers' permission in order to meet sales quotas.

The resolution resembles one the Sisters of St Francis of Philadelphia and others filed for the bank's 2014 annual meeting and then withdrew, on the understanding the San Francisco-based bank would provide more specifics on areas like its risk controls.

But that did not happen, said Sister Nora Nash, a nun who is director of corporate social responsibility for the Catholic religious order, despite a series of meetings held in person and by phone with bank leaders including Wells Fargo lead independent director Stephen Sanger and a top ethics officer, Christine Meuers.

"They haven't done what we would have," said Nash in a telephone interview. "Now it is biting them in the face."

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